9 hours ago
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Lexar ES5 magnetic portable SSD
ZDNET's key takeaways
- The Lexar ES5 is available in a 1TB and 2TB configuration, for $119 and $199, respectively.
- It has read and write speeds up to 2,00MB/s and is IP65 rated for dust and water ingress.
- It's not exactly cheap.
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Small SSDs have paved the way to add masses of storage to laptops, tablets, and even smartphones quickly and easily. Storage, especially in smartphones, is expensive (that 2TB iPhone 17 Pro Max is a cool $2,000), so being able to expand storage without breaking the bank is a must.
If you're a content creator like myself who often finds themselves in tents and hammocks with your gear getting wet and muddy, you're going to want a certain level of durability -- which is what the Lexar ES5 magnetic portable SSD offers.
Also: The best M.2 SSDs you can buy
This drive looks a lot like many others around the same price: a small, palm-sized box with a cable connection at the bottom. It's thin and light, clad is a soft silicone shell with a magnetic ring so it attaches to the MagSafe ring on the iPhone (there's a stick-on magnetic ring for your non-iPhone users out there).
It'll attach cleanly and inconspicuously to a smartphone, and uses a cable for data transfer. Speaking of cables, it's stored in a silicone holder that allows it to double as a carry lanyard.
The drive uses a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 interface and can handle read and write speeds up to 2,000MB/s, which means that when attached to an iPhone, it's fast enough to handle direct video recording up to 4K at 120FPS.
So far, so good. But also pretty generic.
The Lexar ES5 SSD clamps to the back of my iPhone 17 Pro Max very unobtrusively.
So what if I through durability into the mix? This one is certainly up there when it comes to toughness.
Also: Stop buying cheap, no-name SSD drives - here's why
Most portable SSDs will give up the ghost if dropped or at the slightest hint of moisture, but the ES5 is IP65 rated for dust and water ingress (it's completely dust-proof when the cable is fitted, because sand and grit in the USB-C port isn't easy to remove) and can handle water jets from any direction.
The cable holder is a neat idea and allows the cable to double as a lanyard.
It can also handle drops. And I'm not talking about falling out of a pocket, but serious three-meter (10-foot) drops to a hard surface. The soft "liquid silicone" exterior does a great job of shrugging off scuffs and scratches.
ZDNET's buying advice
The Lexar ES5 comes in 1TB and 2TB options, priced at $120 and $200, respectively. This is a little pricier than some similar drives, but if you want a drive that's got a good chance of surviving a fall off the roof of your car or a soaking with your data being intact, then this is the drive you need to be looking at.
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