Regardless of their pedigree in manufacturing different varieties of storage, Lexar might be not a reputation that crops up loads when speaking about the very best transportable arduous drives, with the middling Lexar SL200 being a giant disappointment and massive gamers like SanDisk, Western Digital, and Samsung since grabbing all of the limelight with superior fashions.
Lexar nonetheless is again with a extra critical entry, just lately including a twin set of rather more competent seeming transportable SSDs to its lineup – the Lexar SL660 Blaze and the Lexar Skilled SL600.
Essentially the identical drive, however providing a barely completely different design to court docket two completely different sorts of customers. The SL600 Blaze provides a hoop of coloured LED lights to the carabiner deal with to take a seat properly subsequent to any neon-lit gaming rig, whereas the SL600 Skilled retains issues extra demure by forgoing the lights altogether. However which one calls to you very a lot is determined by your setup.
The drive I’m reviewing right here is the Lexar Skilled SL600 Transportable SSD, which for my part is probably going the drive that matches photographers and videographers finest, particularly if utilizing the drive to report on to from a digital camera.
Lexar Skilled SL600: Specs
| Capability | 512GB/1TB/2TB |
| Materials | Graphite Gray Aluminium |
| Interface | USB 3.2 Gen2x2 |
| Efficiency Pace | as much as 2000MB/s learn, as much as 2000MB/s write |
| Working Temperature | 0°C ~ 70°C |
| Storage Temperature | -40°C ~ 85°C |
| System Supported | Mac OSX 10.6+, Home windows 8+, Android 4.4+ |
| Guarantee | 5-year restricted guarantee |
| Dimension (L x W x H) | 112.6 x 59 x 10.6 mm (4.43 x 2.32 x 0.42 in) |
| Weight | 64 g (0.14 lb) |
Lexar Skilled SL600: Value & Availability
On the time of writing, the Lexar Skilled SL600 prices $129.99 for the 1TB model of the drive, and $174.99 for the 2TB capability, which is only a meager $45 improve to leap up an entire terabyte in capability. This worth could be very in keeping with rival drives, simply barely undercutting the value of rival drives just like the Samsung T9 or SanDisk Excessive Professional, which provide comparable Gen 3.2 2×2 speeds, though rival drives each provide extra strong drop safety. The RRP can be the identical because the Lexar SL600 Blaze, so that you gained’t must pay additional if you’d like these LED colours.
Lexar Skilled SL600: Design & Dealing with
Transportable SSDs usually fall into two classes, there are those who purpose to be as modern and miniature as doable, or there are rugged transportable SSDs that supply water resistance, drop safety, and methods to connect to luggage for carrying. Nevertheless, the most recent SSD from Lexar sort of sits in between these classes.
It doesn’t have the rubberized outdoorsy really feel of a rugged drive, as an alternative being made from modern sandblasted aluminum, and the drive doesn’t have an official drop score. The drive does have a carabiner deal with for attaching the drive for carrying round, though there’s additionally no climate resistance score quoted. There isn’t any rule saying it’s important to be one or the opposite, however its combined messages make it more durable for me to position the drive when recommending it for various functions.
As a much less adventurous photographer, my SSDs spend more often than not inside my home or workplace and are transferred inside a bag, so the deal with provides little worth for me personally. The deal with nonetheless does make the drive bigger than drives just a little bigger than different “inside drives” however is about on par with the dimensions of different rugged SSDs.
I do nonetheless actually just like the look of the Lexar SL600, the design is subtle {and professional} wanting, and the uncovered screws and venting alongside the perimeters break up what might need in any other case been a really boring chassis. I feel it’s a design that may impress purchasers hooked up to my digital camera or laptop computer.
Lexar Skilled SL600: Efficiency
The Lexar SL600 encompasses a Gen 3.2 2×2 interface to hurry up information switch and may provide prime learn and write speeds of as much as 2,000MB/s in good situations. The large draw back – plenty of off-the-shelf PCs and all present Macs don’t help Gen 3.2 2×2, which means that most individuals gained’t see any profit to this drive speeds over an everyday Gen 3.2 port. That is additionally true for many cameras, to my information nearly all of which additionally don’t acknowledge a Gen 3.2 2×2 connection for direct recording.
This isn’t essentially a nasty factor, because the Lexar SL600 continues to be quick with a Gen 3.2 connection, and leaves older drives in its wake, providing speeds of as much as 16x that of an exterior HDD.
In my Blackmagic Disk Pace Check the SL600 achieved a 783MB/s write velocity and an 885.3MB/s learn velocity when paired with my Apple MacBook Professional and formatted in ExFAT. These rankings put the SL600 neck and neck with the PNY EliteX-PRO and simply ever so barely behind the Samsung T9.
Nevertheless, when the drive was reformatted to MacOS Journaled, the SL600 write speeds had been upped to 876.8MB/s write and 907.8MB/s learn velocity, which is a major write velocity bump, though does severely restrict the drive’s compatibility with cameras and non-Apple gadgets.
In additional sensible testing – I copied my typical testing folder made up of RAW and JPEG recordsdata to and from the drive, the folder makes up round 35GB of information and round 500 recordsdata in complete.
The recordsdata had been transferred from my inside MacBook SSD to the Lexar SL600 (exFAT) in 47 seconds, for a velocity of round 744MB/s, this was improved to 40 seconds in MacOS Journaled, or roughly 853MB/s. For comparability, the identical recordsdata took a whopping 10 minutes and 24 seconds (~55MB/s) to switch on a Western Digital Necessities transportable HDD, which was virtually 17 occasions slower than, so anybody nonetheless utilizing an previous transportable arduous disk drive, it’s actually time to improve.
Lexar Skilled SL600: Verdict
The Lexar Skilled SL600 Transportable SSD is a good possibility for a big selection of photographers and videographers and presents commendable velocity for many recording and enhancing duties that don’t demand the utmost in excessive high-speed efficiency. The drive is one other Gen 3.2 2×2 SSD, though compatibility for this connection shouldn’t be widespread, so that you may battle to achieve the drive’s prime speeds when you use any off-the-shelf PC or Mac. Fortunately the drive can nonetheless attain respectable speeds on common USB-C 3.2 connections which are lightyears forward of older HDDs.
With regards to design, the inclusion of a carabiner deal with appears considerably superfluous for a drive not explicitly geared towards rugged use. Personally, I might have favored a sleeker, extra compact design over the rugged aesthetic, however I’m positive some creators will discover this handy.
Ought to I purchase the Lexar Skilled SL600?
✅ Purchase it if…
- You desire a quick SSD for direct enhancing or recording
- You need an reasonably priced SSD that’s nonetheless high-quality
- You need an SSD that appears skilled
⛔️ Do not buy it if…
- You need the smallest transportable SSD
- You want extraordinarily quick speeds
