The 11 Best Solid State USB Hard Drives (2023 reviews)
There are several advantages of having a solid state usb hard drive.
Let’s take you step by step, type by type, and find the best solid state usb hard drive for you.
Our review process:
Our Top Picks:
Best Overall: Buy: Seagate Solid State USB Hard Drive READ REVIEWBest With All devices: Buy: Samsung Solid State USB Hard Drive READ REVIEWBest For iphone: Buy: Western Digital Solid State USB Hard Drive READ REVIEWBest For ipad: Buy: Sandisk Solid State USB Hard Drive READ REVIEWBest For imac: Buy: Buffalo Solid State USB Hard Drive READ REVIEWBest With Windows: Buy: Vectotech Solid State USB Hard Drive READ REVIEWBest For people: Buy: Kingston Solid State USB Hard Drive READ REVIEWBest For photographer: Buy: Netac Solid State USB Hard Drive READ REVIEWBest With Linux System: Buy: JOIOT Solid State USB Hard Drive READ REVIEWBest For Macbook Pro: Buy: Wdblack Solid State USB Hard Drive READ REVIEWBest For imac Time Machine: Buy: Sandisk Professional Solid State USB Hard Drive READ REVIEWBest Overall: Seagate Solid State USB Hard Drive
Buy on Amazon This Seagate PS4 hard drive is definitely worth the money. It offers cooling and heat dissipation for extended reliabilityplus, its usb drive. It even works on a Windows OS system for document storage like photos, videos, music, documents etc. It’s straightforward and quick to just plug it in, format, and get started. It's small and light as well, with a light on the front side when it is plugged into anything. The default drive is likely a 1/2 TB drive (500Gb) and this is a 2 TB (2, 000Gb) drive which gives you four times the space on the external hard drive, and a total of 2.5 times the storage. It is straightforward and quick to just plug it in, format, and get started.Why We Like This:
- Works great and is very portable
- Very easy to set up, works great, and high quality
- You can take and play on any other playstation
Best With All devices: Samsung Solid State USB Hard Drive
Buy on Amazon The samsung solid state usb hard drive should be able to handle its purpose and duties with ease. It's cute, rugged, and portable. It is built to endure with the space to create thanks to an IP65 rating for dust and water resistance, high-tech rubber exterior controls heat to maintain steady performance and date transfer rate. It gets warm and a bit hot if used heavily but not too hot for the touch. It can also be formatted to ntfs. This disk is very easy to use. It is compatible with all devices but is compatible with android devices using usb-c. The rubber is SO thin there is no way it could hide any sort of heat. It will allow you to back a mac device. It will allow you to use a mac device. It is very sturdy and very nice for daily use.Why We Like This:
- Super fast, small, easy to use
- Delivers what they promise
Best For iphone: Western Digital Solid State USB Hard Drive
Buy on Amazon The features department is where western digital solid state usb hard drive truly manages to shine. It comes with dependability from a brand you can trust, empower your next-level productivity with a wd elements se ssd. It is easy to take along but holds a ton of data and pics etc. The weight is so light that it feels like a McDonald’s toy, like it’s just a shell of plastic. The connector going into the drive resembles something like the dual port for samsung phones. The size wise it’s perfect for portability and 2 TB is a lot of room for the size. A compact design and drop resistance up to 2 meters make this the perfect drive no matter where you are. Whether you’re on the job or creating for pleasure, the wd elements se ssd puts you in control of your content across laptop, desktop and other devices. They both work flawlessly and are very fast.Why We Like This:
- Reliable, fast, high quality, easy installation
- Takes little space and was easy to set up
- Delivers what they promise
Best For ipad: Sandisk Solid State USB Hard Drive
Buy on Amazon Sandisk offers a variety of drive for personal choice and yet maintaining quality in all the variants. The transfer speed from this solid state drive to your computer's internal solid state drive will be very fast. It does get very warm to the touch. It comes with a sandisk portable SSD so you can store your content and memories on a fast drive that fits seamlessly into your mobile lifestyle. It offers even faster read/write speeds. It is not easy at all to open, but once you do you'll find a control board with an m2 2280 drive attached to it. It is also very durable and comes well protected from damage from impacts. It is extremely necessary and reliable.Why We Like This:
- Great small back up device, very fast
- Transfer speed is very good and consistent with it
- Works great on ipad, iphone & windows laptop
Best For imac: Buffalo Solid State USB Hard Drive
Buy on Amazon The buffalo solid state usb hard drive should be able to handle its purpose and duties with ease. These sticks are a great option if you’re looking to go with something other than the official storage device for your gaming system. The SSD-PG has a read speed of 340 MB/s and a write speed for 320 MB/s. It is designed to fit a camera or slot as an sd card. It provides drop protection additionally it is compatible with ps4/ps5, macs, and pcs. In terms of physical quality it does feel very flash-drive like. The size is reminiscent of the first generation iPod shuffle. It is great way to expand your console’s storage by holding game data and freeing up space on your internal drive. It is easy to see that the computer or port being used can have a dramatic impact. The device is well made yet lightweight and compact so it's an excellent option for travel or limited desk or storage space.Why We Like This:
- A great choice for game storage
- Transfers are speedy and require very minimal formatting
- Plug and play, easy to use
- Boot speed is sufficient, not prone to errors from forced shutdowns
Best With Windows: Vectotech Solid State USB Hard Drive
Buy on Amazon Vectotech has been making great drive for years, thanks to a combination of clever design and appropriate materials. It has big advantage over traditional spinning hard drives for not having any moving parts, making it much more reliable for falling, vibration and shock. It has ultra fast read/write speeds of up to 540mb/s, lets you transfer conveniently large files, 4k videos, and high end gaming in seconds. It is compatible with windows (7 or higher), mac (macos 10.x and higher), xbox, ps4, ipad pro, android smartphones with usb c port, surveillance systems and thunderbolt 3 devices. It comes with usb 3.1 gen 2 interface (type-c connection) and 3d nand technology. The drive performs very well for a long time. It works with PC and mac straight out of the box. It is tenuous at best, and it is nowhere near a tight lock.Why We Like This:
- Capable of withstanding operating temperatures from
- Shock and vibration resistant up to 1500g at 05msec
- Save your time on moving and/or copying your photos, videos, documents, music and etc
- Lightweight and solid, but a bit large
Best For people: Kingston Solid State USB Hard Drive
Buy on Amazon The kingston solid state usb hard drive has killer features for the price point. This compact SSD can be stored in your pocket or purse without worry and can be taken almost anywhere. It is used for windows daily file backup of selected directories. It works seamlessly and noiselessly. The drive is in a metal case and the package includes a nice durable rubber sleeve that slides on easily to protect the ssd from accidental impact. It is made of black and silver plastic, and a black silicon “bumper” is included in the package to help prevent wear when the drive is thrown in a bag. This is great for people who travel frequently with their laptops, or for those who use their computers in harsh environments. This comes plug and play compatible for most current operating systems.Why We Like This:
- Fantastic external ssd, fast and small
- Max speed actually around 408 mbps on thunderbolt
- New and hot release
Best For photographer: Netac Solid State USB Hard Drive
Buy on Amazon The netac solid state usb hard drive is suitable and reliable and fits well with your regular usage. For a small, portable and affordable SSD, these speeds are actually quite good. It's incredible how small and lightweight it is. It is aluminum and this will cause extra heat. The converter they supply will plug right onto the USB 3.1 end of the cord so you can utilize a Type-C port for data transfer. It works and is pretty fast. It makes it so ready to carry around if need be. It's built with sustained speeds upwards of 300mb/s for both read and write. The drive fits nice and snug inside of it. This is also a fantastic product for any photographer looking to have extra storage on the go.Why We Like This:
- Speeds are great, especially compared to a regular hard drive
- Super small size but lots of storage
- Runs fine just gets warm after a few mins
Best With Linux System: JOIOT Solid State USB Hard Drive
Buy on Amazon Best part: joiot solid state usb hard drive costs comparatively low and it is available to ship in 24 hours. This is a really compact portable SSD. It can work with the HP chromebook laptop. Its reading speed is 400MB/s and its writing speed is 200MB/s. It has a certain heat dissipation function, which will ensure that your device can be used normally. It is ideal for transferring large-sized data including 4k videos, high-resolution photos and more. Its biggest characteristic is very light, only 23 grams, very small. This drive is pretty speedy. The Portable solid state drive meets your portable demands anytime anywhere if any devices with USB slots can be accessed.Why We Like This:
- Handy removeable storage you can take with you
- Fast storage no problems connecting it to xbox and using
- Extra bit-cells are used to find and correct any data error
- Really compact size and very fast data transfers
Best For Macbook Pro: Wdblack Solid State USB Hard Drive
Buy on Amazon The wdblack solid state usb hard drive should be able to handle its purpose and duties with ease. This high-performance SSD storage features blazing speeds in a compact and shock-resistant design, making it easy to take with you anywhere. It is compatible with playstation 5 and xbox series x|s consoles. The drive has a sleek and slim profile, with an aluminum case that serves double duty as a heat sink. It has very quick transfer speed and the RGB light provide a nice look to it, specially on a black desk. The RGB lighting is not necessary but does differentiate the drive a bit from its competitors. It makes using the games so much easier and less full of lag with the new space. The lights are customizable and there is an option for you to turn them off. It comes with a usb attachment for any usb port.Why We Like This:
- Well build and fast ssd external drive
- Temperature can also be monitored through the dashboard
- Small form factor, work out of the box and case is of high quality
- Transfer speeds average about 250mbps when transferring a 54gb folder of raw photos
Best For imac Time Machine: Sandisk Professional Solid State USB Hard Drive
Buy on Amazon We would, of course, be remiss if we didn't mention sandisk professional solid state usb hard drive for regular usage. This SSD ( solid state drive ) is smaller and also does not make a ghastly whirring sound when in use. It downloads and runs as an executable and doesn't even need to be installed on your machine. It also is protected from drops as high as 3 feet from the ground. The drive itself is super light. It has a bit of a rubberized texture to the casing so it won't slide around on your desk. It is very fast and easy to carry anywhere. The portability and reliability are top-notch.Why We Like This:
- Ultra-rugged durability with ip67 water/dust resistance, up to 3m1 drop, and 2000lb crush resistance
- Small, sturdy, fast & easy to use
- Easily to transport and convenient for reviewing film