Crucial Launches X9 Pro and X10 Pro Portable SSDs with Speeds up to 2100 MB/s
Portable Storage at up to USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Speeds
Crucial has added two high-performance products to their portable SSD lineup, with the X9 Pro and X10 Pro Portable SSDs moving into some interesting new territory. In particular, the X10 Pro Portable SSD is a USB 3.2 Gen2 2×2 product, which offers double the bandwidth of previous USB-C offerings.
An interesting aspect of this announcement is Crucial’s mention of their new single-ASIC design, which is allowing them to increase storage density:
“Both drives utilize Micron TLC NAND and leverage a revolutionary single-ASIC portable storage architecture to enable a breakthrough, ultra-compact, lightweight form factor and allows Micron to ship the most capacity per square millimeter in the industry.”
I need to learn more about the architecture of these drives.
The Crucial X10 Pro Portable SSD
While internal SSDs enjoy ever-greater interface speeds, on the portable side of things we see mostly drives that top out at 10 Gbps. File transfers of 1 GB/s are nothing to sneeze at, but it’s obviously nowhere near the performance of even a budget NVMe SSD these days.
The Crucial X10 Pro Portable SSD is one of those rare USB Gen2x2 Type-C devices, and Crucial lists sequential read speeds of up to 2100 MB/s, with sequential write speeds of up to 2000 MB/s. All I can say is YES, PLEASE. And these aren’t crazy expensive, either.
It looks like Crucial is offering discounted introductory pricing at launch, and right now the Crucial X10 Pro 1TB is $119.99 USD, the 2TB is $169.99, and the 4TB is $289.99. Not bad at all for these speeds.
“The Crucial X10 Pro Portable SSD, the fastest external SSD offered to date by Micron, delivers sequential read/write speeds up to 2,100MB/s and 2,000MB/s respectively and up to 4TB of space. Creative professionals can transfer 1TB of data in under nine minutes, dramatically improving video editing workflow efficiencies. The Crucial X10 Pro can connect directly to a laptop or workstation via the provided USB-C cable to blaze through multi-camera timelines and users can even edit, trim and render directly from the drive. Both water and dust resistant (IP55), the Crucial X10 Pro works with Windows, Mac, Android, game consoles and more right out of the box.”
The Crucial X9 Pro Portable SSD
If you don’t need (or can’t make use of) Gen2x2 speed, the Crucial X9 Pro is a more conventional – and more affordable – offering, with up to 1050 MB/s sequential speeds and a very compact and lightweight design.
These X9 Pro drives are also available in the same capacities as the X10 Pro, with 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB models available. As to pricing, the current discount takes the Crucial X9 Pro 1TB to $79.99 USD, with the 2TB at $129.99 USD, and the 4TB at $239.99 USD.
10 Gbps USB-C is extremely common, particularly in the modern laptop space, and this is more than fast enough for photos. You just can’t have enough bandwidth when you are working with ever-higher resolution video in various high-bitrate formats, but RAW photos do quite well from a 10 Gbps portable SSD like these.
“With space to store thousands of photos, files and videos, the Crucial X9 Pro Portable SSD provides the speed required to organize, curate, edit and retouch photos quickly. Photographers can accelerate their workflow with powerful performance and storage capacity, as the Crucial X9 Pro provides sequential read and write speeds up to 1,050MB/s and is available in sizes up to 4TB. The Crucial X9 Pro is plug-and-play ready with a USB-C connection and works with Windows, Mac, Android devices and more. Its diminutive size of 65 x 50 millimeters provides palm-sized portability and weighs only 38 grams.”
Available SKUs and Current Pricing
Here’s the breakdown of each model with MSRP as well as current pricing (Amazon affiliate links):
- Crucial X9 Pro 1TB Portable SSD (CT1000X9PROSSD9) $89.99 MSRP, currently $79.99
- Crucial X9 Pro 2TB Portable SSD (CT2000X9PROSSD9) $159.99 MSRP, currently $129.99
- Crucial X9 Pro 4TB Portable SSD (CT4000X9PROSSD9) $289.99 MSRP, currently $239.99
- Crucial X10 Pro 1TB Portable SSD (CT1000X10PROSSD9) $129.99 MSRP, currently $119.99
- Crucial X10 Pro 2TB Portable SSD (CT2000X10PROSSD9) – $209.99 MSRP, currently $169.99
- Crucial X10 Pro 4TB Portable SSD (CT4000X10PROSSD9) – $339.99 MSRP, currently $289.99
Editorial Comments: I saw my first motherboard with a USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C port three years ago (an MSI MEG Z490 Unify), but devices that take advantage of this are rare. I’m definitely excited about the Crucial X10 Pro, since I rely heavily on portable SSDs for moving video around – sneakernet is much faster than my home network!
