The Apricorn Aegis NVX ($339 for 500GB as examined) has one characteristic practically unheard-of on this planet of hyper-secure encrypted exterior SSDs: Velocity. With a purpose to embrace elaborate safety features with out letting a drive’s value get fully out of hand, producers have a tendency to make use of comparatively low-cost however plodding SATA interfaces. Apricorn has resisted that temptation with the Aegis NVX. Between its NVMe interface and USB 3.2 Gen 2 help, the security-keypad machine presents velocity on a par with most shopper solid-state drives, incomes it an Editors’ Alternative award. Sure, it is costly, nevertheless it’s not rather more than you’d pay for a slower safe SSD.
Design: Sturdy, Robust, Safe
Measuring 0.59 by 4.7 by 2.6 inches (HWD), the Aegis NVX is black with silver trim, milled from a strong block of 6061 aircraft-grade aluminum. On high, it has a responsive rubberized keypad, which is proof against each moisture and put on (the latter means thieves cannot inform at a look which buttons are most used). Inside, the elements are additional protected with hardened epoxy. The drive’s USB 3.2 Gen 2 cable with Kind-C connector is mounted to the facet and matches right into a groove when not in use. The machine additionally comes with a foam-lined zippered carrying case.
The Aegis NVX is software-free and fully hardware-encrypted—with AES-XTS 256-bit military-grade encryption—making it cross-compatible and working system-agnostic (it really works with Home windows, macOS, Linux, Android, Symbian, and ChromeOS). All you want is a number machine with a USB-C or USB-A port—Apricorn gives two 18-inch cables, one USB-C feminine to USB-C male and one USB-C feminine to USB-A male.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)As for the NVX’s safety certifications, Apricorn stated at presstime it was making some minor modifications to submit the drive for Federal Info Processing Requirements (FIPS) 140-3 validation. It was designed to satisfy the FIPS 140-2 commonplace, however by the point the NVX was prepared, FIPS was now not now not accepting new submissions for 140-2. Firms and authorities companies usually require FIPS validations of the safe SSDs and exhausting drives they purchase, so many potential clients might want to wait earlier than contemplating the NVX.
Organising an administrator password that I may enter to unlock the drive every time I plugged it into a pc’s USB port was a cinch. It is easy to enter administrator mode so as to add, change, or delete particular person person passwords and carry out a wide range of different capabilities. Once you unplug the NVX cable out of your laptop computer or desktop, the drive relocks and encryption is as soon as once more enabled. You too can configure the SSD to lock after a specified interval of inactivity.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)The drive’s AES-XTS 256-bit encryption is successfully impervious to brute-force assaults. A supercomputer making an attempt one encryption key after one other would take a median of trillions of years to interrupt in.
Along with knowledge safety, the Aegis NVX has robust ruggedness cred, amply protected in opposition to each the weather and unintended (or intentional) harm. The drive is designed to be shockproof and crush-proof as much as 6,500 kilos, which implies it ought to stand up to being run over by a Ford F-250 or trampled by a southern white rhino. (Alas, we weren’t in a position to check this declare.) The NVX’s ingress safety (IP) score of IP67 means it might stand up to publicity to sand and dirt in addition to immersion in 1.5 meters of water for as much as half an hour.
Testing the Aegis NVX: Scorching Velocity for a Safe SSD
We check exterior SSDs utilizing PC Labs’ most important storage testbed, a desktop PC constructed on an Asus Prime X299 Deluxe motherboard with Intel Core i9-10980XE Excessive Version CPU. The system has 16GB of DDR4 Corsair Dominator RAM clocked to three,600MHz and employs an Nvidia GeForce discrete graphics card.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)We subjected the Aegis NVX to our traditional suite of benchmarks, comprising Crystal DiskMark 6.0, PCMark 10 Storage, Blackmagic’s Disk Velocity Take a look at, and our personal folder switch check. The primary two are run on the aforementioned testbed with the drive formatted in NTFS, and the latter two on an Apple MacBook Professional utilizing exFAT. Crystal DiskMark’s sequential velocity checks present a standard measure of drive throughput, simulating best-case, straight-line transfers of enormous recordsdata. The PCMark 10 Storage check measures an SSD’s readiness for all kinds of on a regular basis duties.
Our comparability drives within the desk under embrace an assortment of hyper-secure, encrypted SSDs, plus an analogous spinning exhausting drive, the iStorage DiskAshur DT2. We additionally added the Samsung Transportable SSD T7 Contact, an in any other case standard (not rugged) fingerprint-secured USB 3.2 Gen 2 SSD.
Within the Crystal DiskMark and Blackmagic velocity checks, the Aegis NVX proved far quicker than all of the hyper-secure lock-box SSDs and exhausting drives in our comparability group. It managed throughput scores just like the Samsung T7 Contact, besides the Apricorn had a big benefit in Blackmagic write speeds. In our PCMark Storage testing, the Aegis NVX trounced its safe competitors and likewise had a transparent benefit over the T7 Contact. It tied the T7 Contact for the quickest folder switch velocity and was significantly quicker than the opposite lock-box SSDs in that check as nicely.
Verdict: The Drive Your Delicate Information Calls for
The Apricorn Aegis NVX is a welcome exception to the rule that ultra-secure SSDs should have plodding learn and write speeds. The drive has a wealth of safety features and is extremely ruggedized, but delivers all of the velocity you’d count on from a USB 3.2 Gen 2 exterior SSD. Like different lockbox drives, the NVX would not come low-cost, nevertheless it offers you a profitable mixture of knowledge safety, ruggedness, and velocity. It simply earns an Editors’ Alternative award as the very best hyper-secure SSD.
