Review: WD My Passport SSD refresh brings zippy NVMe to the table

If you bought an M1-equipped Mac mini or MacBook Air, one of the things that is a problem is the expansion of the storage capacity. Since no upgrade options are available, consumers will have to look to external storage options instead, and that usually means a portable hard drive with some description.

Western Digital’s My Passport line has been around for a long time and aims to provide storage that can be taken with the user wherever they go. The My Passport SSD has been updated for 2020, improving speed and revamping the look of the portable drive.

• Options for capacities up to 2 TB
• 256-bit AES hardware encryption
• Suitable for USB-C 3.1 Gen 2
• Includes USB Type-C to USB Type-A converter
• Read speeds of up to 1050 MB / s and write speeds of 1000 MB / s
• Fall protection up to 2 meters
• 3.94 inch by 2.17 inch by 0.35 inch
• 5 years warranty

The My Passport SSD enclosure is small, measuring just 0.35 inches thick, 3.94 inches long and 2.17 inches wide. It is also quite light at 45.7 ounces (1.6 grams).

While a bit larger than the previous generation and slightly thinner, the drive is still extremely pocketable and can be easily carried in a bag.

The two-tone housing of the previous version has been replaced by a metal housing with a sweep motif and is available in five colors. While the last version was a bit flashy, the new version is understated, but still stylish in its own right.

The metal housing also helps to protect it, with its shock and vibration resistance and drop resistance from heights of up to 2 meters. This means that the drive can handle the rigors of daily use with ease and without too much effort.

A good design choice is to use a separate USB-C cable, which can be easily replaced by the user. This opens up the possibility of losing the cable itself, but it will still work with any USB Type-C cable.

WD not only comes with a (too short) USB Type-C to Type-C cable, but also a USB Type-C to Type-A adapter in the box. This gives the drive the ability to operate out of the box with USB-A 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports at slower speeds.

We don’t like this cable and the stiffness of the cable isn’t great. Fortunately, better replacement cables are inexpensive and numerous.

The drive is listed as supporting USB 3.2 Gen 2 with up to 10 Gb / s. Since it is a USB drive, it is backward compatible with proper cabling.

As part of the refresh, WD has updated the type of storage in the drive itself, moving the line to higher speed NVMe. WD claims read speeds of up to 1050MB / s and write speeds of up to 1000MB / s on USB-C 3.2 Gen 2.

WD offers the drive in three capacities, with 500GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities, with the 1TB version used for this review.

We routinely saw speeds of about 930 megabytes per second writing and 910 megabytes per second reading in the real world. With extensive hammering of the drive speed test, thermal throttling drove speeds down to about 720 megabytes per second of read and write – still faster than a single SATA-based SSD can deliver.

WD My Passport SSD 1 TB speeds

When connected to a USB 3.0 Type A port, speeds were limited to approximately 410 megabytes per second for reading and 400 megabytes per second for writing. These speeds are about what we expected given the port’s limitations.

Like the earlier version, WD has 256-bit AES hardware encryption in the drive, so users can encrypt the data with minimal performance increase. The encryption element relies on using the included WD Discovery software, which can also be used to automate backups, but requires Internet activation beforehand.

The WD Discovery for Mac software is sufficient, but we’re not going to get into it too much here. With encryption enabled, speeds are limited to approximately 700 megabytes per second read and 550 megabytes per second write on a 15-inch i9 2018 MacBook Pro or M1 Mac mini, and a hair less on a 15-inch MacBook Pro from 2016.

While WD has its own backup software, Mac users have better options. For starters, even without any third-party cloning software, the drive also supports macOS’s Time Machine. However, it needs to be reformatted beforehand – which is what most Mac users generally do anyway, unless they’re cross-platform.

WD states that the drive works right out of the box with exFAT formatting on both PCs and Macs. On the PC side, it supports both Windows 10 and Windows 8.1, and can reformat for other operating systems as well, with reformatting.

For those in need of external storage, you can’t really go wrong with the WD My Passport SSD. Using NVMe means it is faster than ever before, combined with the metal housing and built-in hardware encryption, your precious data can be kept safe.

The small size and high capacity make it a breeze for MacBook Air and MacBook Pro users to take with them. The drive is also reasonably priced for what it offers and is a good option for expanding storage – albeit externally – on Macs that can sometimes come at very high prices for additional storage internally.

The WD My Passport SSD is a solid, uninspiring external USB-C drive, a product readily available from most electronics manufacturers. Not everything has to be groundbreaking or have record-breaking speeds. Sometimes you need a $ 10 hammer to get the job done instead of a $ 120 ergonomic design custom-made to fit in your hand.

The WD My Passport SSD is the epitome of the right tool to get the job done without breaking the bank.

• Compact size and lightweight.
• Separate USB Type-C cable.
• Resistant to shocks and drops.
• Adequate but not a great coding suite.
• High transfer speeds

• The supplied cable is quite short.
• Reformatting required for Time Machine.

The WD My Passport SSD can be purchased from Amazon, with prices usually starting at $ 89 for the 500 GB model, $ 139.99 for the 1 TB version, and $ 239 for the 2 TB variant with retail prices of $ respectively 119, $ 199 and $ 379. It is available in gray, gold, red, silver and blue colors.