CmdrLaForge
macrumors 601
It seems to be a much cheaper storage option than Apples internal offer.
Review: LaCie's New Portable SSD is Pocket-Sized With Up to 2TB Storage and Fast Transfer Speeds
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RobbieTT
macrumors 6502a
How wonderful that we can now buy an oddly shaped, larger-sized SSD from a less remarkable manufacturer, with a lower pedigree in SSD manufacturing, for a higher price than the equivalent and highly rated Samsung.
If an SSD falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
If an SSD falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
BigParker
macrumors newbie
[doublepost=1541594985][/doublepost]How is it as an external Mojave system drive? Did you install Mojave on it?
LaCie, Seagate's premium brand, today announced the launch of the new LaCie Portable SSD, a palm-sized storage device with up to 2TB of storage space.
The new Portable SSD is one of LaCie's smallest and lightest SSD options, with the 1TB model measuring in at about three and a half inches long and just under three inches wide. It's pocketable at about 1/4 of an inch thick, and it easily fits into a bag or backpack without taking up much space.
LaCie says this drive is suitable for on-the-go use with drop resistance of up to two meters. We dropped it a few times from a two-meter height onto wood flooring to test LaCie's claim, and the SSD suffered no harm.
The SSD is made from a black plastic material with a red-rimmed black metal plate at the top that catches the light and looks quite attractive. There's unobtrusive LaCie branding at the top of the drive and a white LED at the front that comes on when it's plugged into a computer. The LED is a bit too bright in a dimmer room, but it's not a dealbreaker.
LaCie offers the Portable SSD drive in 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB capacities, so there are a total of three models at three price points. 500GB of storage costs $125, 1TB of storage costs $270, and 2TB of storage costs $540.
LaCie says that the Portable SSD features USB 3.1 Gen 2 with maximum read/write speeds up to 540/500MB/s, which wasn't too far off of the speeds that we saw in our testing of the 1TB review unit that LaCie sent for evaluation ahead of the product's launch.
Using a Blackmagic Disk Speed Test with a 2016 MacBook Pro, read speeds for us maxed out at about 524MB/s, while write speeds maxed out at 485MB/s. We didn't quite see LaCie's maximum speeds with the 1TB model, but it was still quick.
Transferring 45GB of photos from the MacBook Pro to the LaCie drive took just about four minutes, and LaCie says that you can transfer one hour of 4K 30fps footage (aka 30GBs) to the drive in about a minute. We didn't see transfer speeds quite that fast, but on the 1TB model, but it wasn't far off.
Transfer speeds will, of course, differ based on what other peripherals you might have plugged into your Mac and your Mac's overall workload. During testing, the Portable SSD stayed cool, getting only the slightest bit warm when transferring a large number of files.
LaCie ships the Portable SSD with both a USB-C to USB-C cable for connecting USB-C accessories to one of Apple's Macs with a USB-C port and a USB-C to USB-A port to connect it a Mac with a USB-A port, so it's compatible with both. You won't get USB 3.1 Gen 2 speeds with a USB-A port though, so be aware of that.
The drive comes formatted in exFAT, so it is compatible with both Mac and Windows machines, but it can be reformatted using the Disk Utility feature in macOS. It comes equipped with a link for registration and to download the LaCie Toolkit software for managing the device.
LaCie's software is designed to sync files between mirrored folders on your computer and the Portable SSD and it is not required.
LaCie's drive features a three-year warranty and a three-year Seagate Rescue Data Recovery Plan that offers data recovery should the drive fail.
Bottom Line
If you need ultraportable storage for uploading and saving content while on the go, LaCie's new Portable SSD is worth checking out thanks to its small size, durability, and fast transfer speeds. It is pricier than some other options that you might find on Amazon, but it does come with a three-year warranty, which is worth taking into account.
How to Buy
The LaCie Portable SSD can be purchased starting this month from third-party resellers like Best Buy, Adorama, B&H Photo, and more. 500GB of storage is available for $125, 1TB of storage is available for $270, and 2TB of storage is available for $540.
Note: LaCie provided MacRumors with a 1TB Portable SSD for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received.
Article Link: Review: LaCie's New Portable SSD is Pocket-Sized With Up to 2TB Storage and Fast Transfer Speeds
OldSchoolMacGuy
Suspended
I saw that having worked in data recovery. LaCie have the highest failure rate of any drive brand we've seen. I'm not speaking from personal experience, as I'd never risk my data on one. I'm speaking from seeing and helping with tens of thousands of recoveries.
prasand
macrumors 6502a
Samsung T5: 74 x 57.3 x 10.5 mm (2.91 x 2.25 x 0.41 in)
SanDisk Extreme: 96.2 x 49.55 x 8.85 mm (3.79 x 1.95 x 0.35 in)
LaCie: 93.5 x 79 x 9.1 mm (3.68 x 3.11 x 0.36 in)
The Sandisk is longer than the LaCie and closer to two-thirds the width, while being slightly thinner. The Samsung is close to three quarters the height, wider than the Sandisk, and thicker than both. The LaCie at its longest point is shorter than the length of my index finger, and on its width is shorter than the length of my pinky (I measured).
That's pretty small to me, it's smaller than my palm. Similarly, I don't see the size difference between the drives to be huge.
Anyway, I've had a "LaCie drive" fail on me, but that's because I dropped it while it was spinning. However, I also know many others have experienced failures over the years. But the problem is the perception that "LaCie drives" fail more. The reality is, there's no such thing as a LaCie drive. LaCie has never made their own drives / SSDs, they merely make enclosures. In reality what was failing were, Western Digital Caviar drives (which were renamed to WD Black drives), then Toshiba drives, then Seagate drives (after Seagate bought the company they went to solely using Seagate, but they moved between drive manufacturers over the years prior).
People that buy LaCie pay the premium for aesthetics.
SanDisk Extreme: 96.2 x 49.55 x 8.85 mm (3.79 x 1.95 x 0.35 in)
LaCie: 93.5 x 79 x 9.1 mm (3.68 x 3.11 x 0.36 in)
The Sandisk is longer than the LaCie and closer to two-thirds the width, while being slightly thinner. The Samsung is close to three quarters the height, wider than the Sandisk, and thicker than both. The LaCie at its longest point is shorter than the length of my index finger, and on its width is shorter than the length of my pinky (I measured).
That's pretty small to me, it's smaller than my palm. Similarly, I don't see the size difference between the drives to be huge.
Anyway, I've had a "LaCie drive" fail on me, but that's because I dropped it while it was spinning. However, I also know many others have experienced failures over the years. But the problem is the perception that "LaCie drives" fail more. The reality is, there's no such thing as a LaCie drive. LaCie has never made their own drives / SSDs, they merely make enclosures. In reality what was failing were, Western Digital Caviar drives (which were renamed to WD Black drives), then Toshiba drives, then Seagate drives (after Seagate bought the company they went to solely using Seagate, but they moved between drive manufacturers over the years prior).
People that buy LaCie pay the premium for aesthetics.
prasand
macrumors 6502a
Software issues are definitely their fault.
SBlue1
macrumors 68020
Ha! I bought a Sandisk Extreme 2TB external SSD on sale at Amazon for $339 last week. I boot Mojave from the drive. It's less than half the size of that LaCie.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078T9SZ3K/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Thx for the link! Are you satisfied so far?
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Pipper99
macrumors 68040
Yes, it works really well! Copying and pasting my entire Pictures folder was so much faster than a mechanical drive. Costco is selling the 500GB model for $99 (same physical size), and I'm thinking of buying one for another backup.
ignatius345
macrumors G3
Yeah, I used to buy them and generally don't remember any huge issues -- aside from how much I was overpaying
az431
Suspended
How do you know they have their own firmware, and if they do, that the firmware is the reason for the failures?
Do you know anyone else with similar issues or just anecdotal evidence based on your personal experience and some bad reviews on Amazon?
Emanuel Rodriguez
macrumors 6502
You would need USB 3.1 Gen 2 for maximum performance. I have such an enclosure, and yes. It's dramatically cheaper. Honestly, SATA-bottlenecked SSDs are becoming impossible to market. I don't get why lacie is trying so hard. A larger SATA-bottlenecked SSD, great. About as interesting as 12TB HDDs.
Although, having dealt with servers with large RAIDs, 12TB drives kinda gives me a somewhat excited chill up my spine. I have issues, I know.
*Finds a 14TB drive*. Drool...
OldSchoolMacGuy
Suspended
I worked in the data recovery industry for more than 10 years, helping to build and outfit some of the best known data recovery services in the country (Ontrack for instance). A lot of experience with the specifics of hard drive operation, firmware, and their operation. This isn't anecdotal evidence but from personal experience working in the industry, helping to recover data from thousands of hard drives, examining the cause for failure, and creating tools to assist in that recovery. In addition I've spoken at national conferences (including MacWorld) on the topic of data recovery, drive duplication, and related topics. Might know just a little about the topic for which I made the statement that LaCie has an incredibly high failure rate.
I bought the exact same physical design from Seagate and it failed within a day! Now it won't connect above USB 2.0 speeds even on USB-C and reading/writing is unbearably slow. Seagate support tried to explain the difference between GB/sec vs. Gbit/sec to justify that I might be expecting something else. This LaCie drive is just lipstick on a pig!