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Seagate Ultra Compact SSD Review: Key Specifications
- Capacity: 1TB or 2TB
- Interface: USB 3.2 Gen 2
- Dimensions: 70 x 20 x 12.5mm
- Weight: 24g
Design and Build
The Seagate Ultra Compact drive lives up to its name. It’s tiny, for an SSD, and we were able to go through our big box of forgotten bits and pull out a 32GB flash drive that was about the same size. If we’d dug deeper, there’s probably a similarly shaped 128MB one somewhere near the bottom, its USB 2.0 connection woefully preparing it for the modern world. It’s noticeably smaller than the other portable SSDs we’ve reviewed on the Bloq, with the Kingston XS1000R the closest in size, yet still twice as big.
Features
There’s very little on the surface of the Seagate Ultra Compact SSD apart from a section you can loop a lanyard through – a small strap is included in the box, but it’s barely big enough to loop around your finger. Otherwise, a hole for an activity light is all that breaks the surface.
Performance
Inside the drive you get 1TB or 2TB of flash – there are no other capacities available at the time of writing. Seagate advertises a transfer rate of 1000MB/s and… that’s exactly what we get. In the Crystaldiskmark benchmark, it posted a read figure of 1053 MB/s and a write speed of 1027 MB/s, while in ATTO Disk Benchmark we saw 1005 MB/s reads and 1000 MB/s writes. This makes it faster in tests than the Kingston XS1000R, and about the same as the Crucial X9 and Seagate Game Drive.
Price
Priced at £109.99 at the time of writing, the Seagate Ultra Compact SSD is near the top of the sort of cost bracket you’d expect for a 1TB external SSD. You’ll pay a premium for such a small, metal-cased drive that can transfer data at a decent rate, and prices elsewhere are beginning to creep down and it’s possible to find them for less, or 2TB drives for not much more.
Who’s it for?
The Seagate Ultra Compact SSD was instantly recognised by an Android phone and an iPad Pro when we attached it to their USB-C ports, so it makes an excellent data transfer solution if you can’t wait for files to transfer through the cloud, or if you need to take large amounts of data with you.
Buy it if…
• You need fast storage
• Thunderbolt speeds don’t matter
• Portability is king
Don’t buy it if…
• Thunderbolt speeds do matter
• Capacity greater than 2TB is required
• You just don’t like that USB-C plug sticking out
Also consider
Other portable SSDs, such as the Kingston XS1000R and the Crucial X9.
