OWC has announced the Envoy Pro EX, which they claim is the world’s fastest USB-C portable drive.
The Envoy Pro EX has speeds of up to 980MB/s, which is pretty impressive for a bus powered, compact USB-C drive. Not only can you copy and back up files in the field quickly, but you can also use the drive as an external USB-C recorder with selected cameras such as the BMPCC 4K.
The claimed 980MB/s speeds, just pips the Glyph Technologies Atom RAID 2TB USB 3.1 which has a claimed speed of up to 950 MB/s.
The Envoy Pro EX series was previously only available in a USB 3 version, and the speeds were limited to 400MB/s.
Key features
- Speed of up to 980MB/s
- Up to 2TB capacity
- USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 compatible
- Fastest USB-C SSD ever built
- P67 — Dust and waterproof
- Fanless for silent operation
- Fast NVMe M.2 SSD
- No power adapter required — bus powered
- 3 Year OWC Limited Warranty
- Mac and PC compatible
Size & Build quality
The Envoy Pro EX is housed in an anodized aluminum enclosure, and OWC claims that it is 100% dustproof with an IP67 waterproof rating that’s certified to survive 30 minutes in 1 meter of water. It is also claimed to be able to operate in temperature extremes from freezing to 158 degrees Fahrenheit.
The drives are similar in size and they weigh about the same as an iPhone.
The drive is bus powered, and with no moving parts, the Envoy Pro EX also runs completely silently.
Capacities & Prices
The Envoy Pro EX is available in the following capacities:
These prices are good for a portable, bus-powered USB-C SSD drive. The 2TB version is actually cheaper than the slower 2TB Envoy Pro EX USB 3 drive ($479.99 USD).
Other Alternatives
Here are some other bus-powered USB-C SSD drives:
| G-Technology 2TB G-DRIVE R-Series USB 3.1 Type-C mobile SSD | SanDisk 1.92TB Extreme 900 Portable SSD | Glyph Technologies Atom RAID 2TB USB 3.1 |
| Speed: up to 560 MB/s | Speed: up to 850 MB/s | Speed: up to 950 MB/s |
| Price: $379.99 USD | Price: $649.99 USD | Price: $479.95 USD |
If you want something even faster, you could just get an OWC Envoy Pro EX Thunderbolt 3 SSD drive and get speeds of up to 2800MB/s (read).
