The storage industry is bracing for a significant reduction in the cost of NAND memory, as the impact of the global pandemic and the price increases it created have now seeped into the system.
The PNY EliteX-PRO Portable SSD is perhaps one of the first products to reflect the post-Covid NAND market, offering improvements beyond what we expected while lowering existing prices.
Should those looking for a fast external SSD with plenty of capacity jump in now or be prepared to wait for even better deals?
Price and Availability
PNY offers the EliteX-PRO in four capacities including 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB. The UK price on Amazon for these is €74,51, €113,04, €204,65 and €525,17.
In the United States, Newegg has a dollar equivalent price of €65,99, €104,99, €189,99 and €489,99.
In both regions, the 2TB model represents the best value for money and the 500GB model is the worst.
Comparing that to a similar Gen 2x2 design, like the Kingston XS2000, the PNY EliteX-PRO is significantly less expensive and even undercuts pure Gen 2 solutions like the Crucial X8 by a few dollars or pounds.
Design and features
Specifications
Interface: USB 3.2 Gen 2x2
Connector: Type-C
Package Contents: USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 C-to-C Cable, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 C-to-A Cable
Capacities4: 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB
Speed: up to 1600MB/s read, 1500MB/s write
Dimensions: 64,5 x 57,8 x 11 mm
Compatibility: USB 3.0/USB 3.1/USB 3.2 Gen 2x2
Security Specification: N/A
Warranty: 3-year limited warranty
Compatible with: Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Chrome OS, or any system that supports a USB mass storage device.
Before we get to the very basic design of this player, it's worth saying that PNY marketing seems to have attached itself to the name of this product.
Because in its MicroSD line, PNY has a product called PRO Elite and Elite-X, and in its portable SSD line, another one called Pro Elite V2.
How the scripted PRO ended up after the EliteX here is a mystery, but these inconsistencies can certainly confuse the buying public.
The Elite-X PRO is the same size as the Elite V2, i.e. 2,50 x 2,25 x 0,43 inches or 64,5 x 57,8 x 11mm (L x W x H). It's a bit of an odd size as the case isn't big enough to accept an NVMe 2280 M.2 module internally, revealing that the NAND memory and its associated controller are most likely mounted on a custom board in the case. inside.
This case is as minimalist as it gets, as it's a thin aluminum extrusion topped off with plastic end caps. The only external features are a USB-C port and an activity LED on one end and production markings on the other.
These markings reveal that the drive was made in Taiwan and that the capacity on our review sample was 1TB.
PNY includes two 12 cm long USB cables with the reader, one to connect the reader to the Type-A and Type-C ports. Documentation is not included, but you can download it along with a branded version of Acronis True Image that will work with this PNY drive.
(*two*)
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)Use
There is very little to say about this drive, which makes it different from any other USB storage device, which I guess is what this technology is all about.
Everything is remarkably simple. You choose the cable that fits the host system, connect it to the EliteX-PRO, and connect the reader through the cable. In most scenarios this will work unless the OS on that machine cannot understand the exFAT file system that comes by default, this should be fine.
For those who wish to use NTFS, EXT4 or another file system, it is possible to reformat the drive to these standards or even use an encrypted file solution. However, there is no hardware encryption as far as we could see.
We'll talk about performance shortly, but how well it performs depends entirely on the specification of the USB the drive is connected to.
It will work with USB 2.0, USB 3.0, and the various incarnations of USB that follow, with the highest level being USB 3.2 Gen 2x2. Most computers come with USB 3.2 Gen 2 or Gen 1, but relatively few come with Gen 2x2.
It should also work with many Thunderbolt ports that can handle USB 3.2, but a USB 3.2 Gen 2 level of performance is likely to be the best result. Using a Gen 2x2 port will go faster, which begs the question of exactly what performance are we talking about?
Performance
References
Here's how the PNY EliteX-PRO 1TB fared in our benchmark test suite:
CrystalDiskMark 8.0.4: 1490,89 MB/s (read); 1163,79Mbps (write)
ATTO: 1,69 GB/s (read, 256 MB); 1,61 GB/s (write, 256 MB)
AS SSD: 1075,89 Mbps (Sequential Read); 497,92 MB/s (sequential write)
AJA: 735 MB/s (read); 1174 MB/s (write)
The most recent Gen 2x2 spec drive we tested was the Kingston XS2000 (opens in a new tab), a much more expensive option that achieved over 2000 MB/s read and 1800 MB/s write in some tests.
Unfortunately, the 1TB PNY Elite-X PRO can't reach those high marks, despite being significantly faster than Gen 2 models like the Crucial X8, Crucial X6, and SanDisk Extreme V2.
These drives top out at around 1000MB/s read and 900MB/s write, but under ideal conditions the Elite-X PRO can be 50% faster than that.
Note that we said "maybe" because this player's test exercise turned out to be much more difficult than expected.
Our test bench has an ORICO brand USB card designed for Gen 2x2 mode and we have used it successfully with other drives that support this mode.
Initially, Elite-X PRO refused to use Gen 2x2 mode and opted for Gen 2 operations instead, limiting speed to around 1000MB/s.
Different machines, different cards, words of support, we tried everything, to no avail.
And then, in desperation, we swapped the supplied PNY cable for one that was from a Seagate One Touch SSD, which is ironically only Gen 2 speed.
Voila, Gen 2x2 speeds, capping the Elite-X PRO at around 1490MB/s read and 1163MB/s write, beating Gen 2 drives by a decent amount.
We have not determined if the supplied cable was faulty or poorly specified, but it did provide the means to get the most out of the unit. If this is a production issue, it is something PNY needs to fix quickly, as many potential buyers will assume their Elite-X PRO unit is faulty.
The benchmarks also brought up some quirks worth mentioning, likely related to how the cache works on these drives.
AJA showed excellent write speeds but mediocre read performance. It seems that when you did the write first, the processing of those writes had a negative impact on subsequent reads.
In contrast, AS SSD showed poor write performance that seemed like the cache was full after running the first few read tests. In AS SSD compression tests, write speeds initially started at just 650 MB/s, then increased to over 1500 MB/s after a short period. This is strange behavior.
What happened in any of these benchmarks didn't affect the ATTO test, which returned read and write results of around 1600 MB/s.
Our findings are that when this drive is running in Gen 2x2 mode, the drive is typically 50% faster to read and 20% faster to write than a typical Gen 2 drive, and if you have a port with that specification, those upgrades are definitely worth having.
But beware, according to PNY's line chart for this product line, the 500GB model only offers 1500MB/s read and 900MB/s write. The 1TB we tested reported 1500MB/s read and 1400MB/s write. While 2TB and 4TB have the best performance of 1600MB/s read and 1500MB/s write.
So when the 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB models are close enough that this isn't an issue, we'd avoid the 500GB option, as write performance falls short of many spec drives. Gen 2. .
final verdict
The bottom line is that the PNY EliteX-PRO is a perfectly usable portable SDD that offers faster speeds than Gen 2 for those lucky enough to have a USB Gen 2x2 port.
Unfortunately, the Gen 2x2 standard never really caught on and will likely become a footnote in USB history once USB 4.0 becomes the new standard.
However, if you have this port, this drive can take advantage of the extra bandwidth without the expense of a Thunderbolt drive and the limited hardware that uses this technology.
If we ignore the Gen 2x2 requirement and use the EliteX-PRO as a simple USB 3.2 Gen 2 drive, it would still be a decent buy and worth considering.
It may not be able to take the beatings the Crucial X8 can take, or it may have fancy security options on Samsung drives, but for most users, there's nothing wrong with this design.
However, buyers should find a padded bag to carry it and its cables, as none are included.
At the time of writing, the PNY EliteX-PRO looks great, but we suspect the upcoming NAND memory price drop could make it even better in the coming months.