At a glance
Expert's Rating
Pros
- Dual USB-A, USB-C interfaces
- Pocket-size design
- Good USB performance
Cons
- No Thunderbolt support
- No additional software
Our Verdict
It’s a little more expensive than a conventional SSD, but the Dual Portable SSD manages to combine good performance with an ultra-portable design, making it a great option for Time Machine backups when travelling with your MacBook.
Price When Reviewed
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Best Prices Today: Kingson Dual Portable SSD
Thumb drives and memory sticks are a compact and convenient way of carrying around small amounts of data and files, but they tend to offer lower performance than solid-state drives, as well as more limited storage capacity too. This means that thumb drives aren’t ideal for handling larger files, or for making regular Time Machine backups on your Mac. However, Kingston’s new Dual Portable SSD offers the best of both worlds, combining the compact design of a thumb drive with the speed and capacity of an SSD.
In fact, the Dual Portable SSD is so small that Kingston refers to it as an SSD “camouflaged as a thumb drive”. It certainly looks the part, with a compact rectangular design that measures just 72mm long, 21mm wide and a mere 8.6mm thick. It’s about the same size as the Kingston 64GB thumb drive that I often use for quick file transfers in my office, but is far faster and has much greater storage capacity. You can easily slip it into your pocket when you’re travelling, and it only weighs 13g so you’ll barely notice it as you carry it around.
It’s sturdy though, with a bright red metal casing that feels solid enough to cope with life on the road. Kingston doesn’t quote an IP rating for weather resistance, so you should probably avoid getting it wet if possible, but the company is confident enough to provide a five-year warranty and the drive should be more than tough enough to cope with general day-to-day use.
Dual USB interfaces allow you to instantly connect the drive to most computers and mobile devices.
Dual Drive
Most SSDs use a conventional USB cable to connect to your computers or mobile devices but, like a thumb drive, the Dual Portable SSD has a USB interface that is built right into the body of the drive. Or, to be precise, it has ‘dual’ interfaces – hence the name – with a USB-A interface on one end of the drive and USB-C on the other end.
That ensures compatibility with a wide range of computers and mobile devices, although when plugged in to a USB-C port on my MacBook Pro the width of the drive did mean that it obscured the adjacent USB-C port on the MacBook, which might be inconvenient if you have other USB devices, such as a keyboard or mouse, that you need to plug in as well. We were also a little concerned about the small plastic covers that protect the USB connectors on the drive, as these come right off and could easily be lost if you’re moving around a lot.
The drive performs well, though. It doesn’t support Thunderbolt, relying instead on USB 3.2 Gen 2, but Kingston quotes speeds of 950MB/s for write performance and 1,050MB/s for read performance. Our tests with the BlackMagic Disk Speed Test showed that the write speed right was on the nail at 950MB/s. The read performance was slightly slower at 920MB/s but that should still be fine for general day-to-day use when transferring files, or for routine Time Machine backups on your Mac.
The drive’s metal case keeps it safe on the road, with removable caps to protect the USB interfaces.
The ultra-compact design does come at a cost, though, and the Dual Portable SSD is a little more expensive than other SSD drives that we’ve reviewed recently, including Kingston’s slightly larger XS1000.
Prices start at $125.89/£87.41 for a drive with 512GB storage, although we tested the 1TB version that costs $143.99/£128.31. There’s also a 2TB option available as well, for $238.99/£211.93. There’s no software provided with the drive either. Kingston does make an app called SSD Manager, which provides basic features for monitoring the drive’s health and performance, but this is currently only available for Windows PCs. That’s not a problem for Mac users who can use Apple’s Disk Utility and Time Machine to provide diagnostic and back-up features. However, some users might require a drive that includes an app that provides password protection for their files, as some of Kingston’s rivals do.
Should You Buy The Dual Portable SSD
Professional users might prefer a faster drive that supports Thunderbolt to provide maximum performance for large graphics or video files, but the USB performance of the Dual Portable SSD is more than adequate for routine tasks such as file transfer and Time Machine backups. Its compact and sturdy design also makes it an ideal option for people who need a backup drive that they can quickly slip into their pocket when travelling.
Best Prices Today: Kingson Dual Portable SSD
Author: Cliff Joseph, Contributor, Macworld
Cliff Joseph is a former editor of MacUser magazine and a freelance editor with 30(ish) years experience of Mac and PC technology. He first used a Mac working as a magazine sub-editor and found it so much better than using scissors and a pot of glue to make the words fit on the page that he become a convert to the Mac overnight. He has spent the rest of his career following the ups and downs of Apple (and is old enough to remember the time Apple came close to going bust). Cliff writes many of MacWorld’s games reviews - and is currently exploring options for getting Diablo IV to run on a Mac…