SK hynix Tube T31 1TB Stick Type SSD with DRAM | up to 1000MB/s | 10 Gbps | USB-A 3.2 Gen2 | External Solid State Flash Drive Compatible with PS4, PS5, Xbox, Window PC & Mac

If you're looking for a really fast drive in the form factor of a USB stick, here it is. (It's not as fast as an internal NVMe drive, but anything that connects to a standard USB port can't be.) If you carry around a small flash drive for quick backups or reimaging of systems, this is about as good as it gets. If you catch it on sale it's around the same price as an ordinary thumb drive with the same capacity, but it's a far better drive.This is actually an M.2 SSD in a stick-shaped case. Its read speed is as high as a USB 3.2 Gen 2x1 (also known as SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps) drive can be; it saturates the USB bus. That, in turn, is as fast as a USB-A port can go; higher speeds would require a USB-C connection. The rated write speed isn't QUITE that fast but it's close, and independent testing showed it beating that spec and saturating the bus. If you plug it into a Superspeed 5Gbps port it will only be half as fast, but will still equal or beat any other drives; it won't be fast in a USB 2.0 (480 Mbps) port but it will still work, and will be as fast as any drive can be on that slow port.SK Hynix doesn't publish a TBW spec for this drive, but it's likely to be comparable to other consumer SSDs; hundreds of terabytes written per terabyte of capacity. It supports S.M.A.R.T and TRIM, though many operating systems won't make full use of those on an external drive.The form factor is the one negative here. Being able to plug directly into a USB-A port is handy, but the drive is big enough that it blocks adjacent ports on many systems and won't fit into some laptops at all. If you regularly face space constraints, you might prefer the X31 Beetle from SK Hynix instead; that's essentially the same drive in a small package with a USB-C port, and comes with C-C and A-C cables for use with computers with either type of port. Because of the need for included cables, the X31 Beetle is usually slightly more expensive than the T31 Tube.

SSD works well, moderate amount of heat, no slowdowns during 6 write sessions I initiated. Well designed, little bit bulky bit it helps with the heat dissipation. I recommend this product.

There are reviewers here stating that the drives format to only 32GB. This is only true if you format it as FAT32 (which the Windows 11 installer does by default). To fix this, you can see the drive by right clicking start, and hitting Disk Management, and adding a partition that supports larger storage, like NTFS. **IF you are not sure it is the correct drive, right click the gray area and hit Properties. It should show as SKHynix T31. ### Formatting the wrong drive can cause loss of information, or your computer to not boot any more.PLEASE be sure you format the right one ### **This particular stick is a little bit bulky in size/shape, but I don't mind personally. It is very solid as well. I was able to move an 800MB video file to this drive in about 2 seconds, so the speed is definitely there.

This is a basic first impressions review, as I've only had it a few days and haven't had time to test it much. I'm not typically the type to be excited for a new purchase, waiting in anticipation for its arrival, but I was with this drive. I've been wanting large and fast storage in a thumb drive form factor for years, and it's finally here. I bought a 256GB flash drive years ago, and while it was a lot of storage at the time, it suffered/suffers from the same issues as all flash drives: slow, especially on lots of small files, and questionable quality/reliability. SSDs are far superior in both these areas.This drive is simply one of SK hynix's short-length M.2 drives and an in-house USB to NVMe controller in an enclosure with a USB-A port sticking out the end. The drive inside is a *very* good drive for its size, with great specs and performance. And, of course, it's SK hynix, who are known for making very high-quality NAND and drives. So you know you're getting quality, and at a great price.As for performance, I haven't been able to push it past 400MB/s, trying it on multiple ports, but I can't get my P31 Gold 1TB in an enclosure to do so, either, so I think there's something up with my ports. In fact, this drive seems a little faster than the P31. I'll have to do more testing when I can on my new computer, which should be able to push this thing to the max. But it holds consistently in the high 300s, typically just under 400, regardless of whether I'm writing a single large file or folders containing lots of files of varying sizes, so it's consistent, and plenty fast, certainly much faster than a typical flash drive and any platter drive. It will likely be rare that I will be feeding it with something that has enough bandwidth to keep up, so this doesn't really concern me. If it turns out to be faster on my new computer, great, but I'm happy with the performance so far. And by the way, these are real-world numbers from doing multiple file copies, using FastCopy, not synthetic benchmarks that have little real meaning.The only thing I don't like, and the reason for only 4 stars, is the case design. It's bulky, which has been pointed out. I expected it to block a port on one side or the other, possibly even both, but it's worse than that. Plugging it in to the back of the computer, it blocks the ports beside it in *both* directions, so the ones in front of, behind, and beside it are all useless. You'll definitely want to plug it into a front port (unfortunately mine aren't fast enough) or a hub. But it's not just the size. They used plastic instead of metal, and had they used metal, not only could it be smaller (and even a little bit could make a big difference with something like this) but it would transfer heat better. I haven't tested thoroughly enough yet to see if heat is an issue, but a metal casing would certainly make it less likely. Finally, the cap doesn't stick onto the tail, so it's easy to lose.One other small issue is that when I initially tried plugging it into a hub, it caused the hub to keep power cycling. The drive and my phone, which was plugged into the hub, kept disconnecting and reconnecting. I suspect it draws just a little too much power for some hubs, especially with other devices plugged in and drawing power.Another potential issue is regarding TRIM support. Supposedly it's there and just doesn't show up, but I'd rather be sure. SK should really provide a utility to check this, or better yet just update the firmware so it shows up properly.The main reason I wanted to write this review, and the reason I'm doing so before fully testing it, is I wanted to address some of the other reviews. I truly think people should be able to prove a certain level of knowledge before reviewing a product, as there are some truly ignorant people leaving negative reviews for ridiculous reasons:- Drive came formatted as exFAT and therefore is clearly used -- It comes formatted exFAT because that's a universal file system that can be used with anything. It's very standard for removable devices, flash cards, etc to be formatted with it. And the way this thing comes packaged and sealed, it would be very unlikely to receive a used one without knowing right away.- Not a full TB -- Seriously, it's almost 2025. This has been a thing *ALWAYS* (ok, technically, since the 90s sometimes, but that's still a quarter century plus). Please, if you're one of these people, research KB/MB/GB/TB vs KiB/MiB/GiB/TiB. While it's a bit annoying, sure, it's nothing new or surprising, it's the same with EVERY drive, and complaining about it at this point is inane. I wonder what these people would do if they ever bought a 20+ TB drive and realized you "lose" ~1.5TB, i.e. 50% more than the entire size of this drive, at those sizes. In actuality, this drive is actually significantly MORE than 1TB, since it's 1,024,190,316,544 bytes, whereas a TB is 1,000,000,000,000, so that's a free ~24GB. A true 1TB drive read as 931GB (1E12/1024^3), whereas this drive is 953.85 GB.- Only 32GB in size -- While it's certainly possible the drive is a knock-off, it's far, far, far more likely this person just doesn't know how to format a drive, and formatted it in FAT32. Seriously, people, if you can't do these most basic things, you shouldn't be leaving reviews.- It's slow -- This is a fast drive. It's going fast for me, it's going fast for plenty of others, and it goes fast in reviews. If it's slow for you, it's probably you. Yeah, it might be a fluke. You may have received a dud. But it's also possible, likely even, that you need to try it in another port or computer. Or maybe you're copying from/to a slow drive. It's only going to go as fast as the slowest link. Either way, if you're going to leave a negative review that a drive is slow, at least have the common sense to specify what you did to test. Because I'm sorry, but most people aren't very bright, and aren't tech savvy, and if you say this drive, which is a fast drive, is going slow, and provide NO other info, I'm going to assume it's you.- It's Chinese-made junk that broke - DOAs happen. Things fail shortly after purchase. Things fail a year or two after. It sucks. But that's electronics. And that's why, if you're using it for anything important, you BACK IT UP. And encrypt it, so you can send it in for warranty if needed without having to worry about the security of the data. And also, SK hynix is a Korean brand, and it says right on the box "Made in Korea. Manufactured in Malaysia." So for those that are unaware, Korea and Malaysia != China.- "Not what I want...It a [sic] SSD" - So you bought an SSD and it's not what you want because it's an SSD? And if it's not working with a TV, make sure it's formatted correctly (probably exFAT).That covers the main ones. The bottom line is, this is a very highly-spec'd, high-quality drive that could/should be a bit smaller, but for what it is, and for the price, it's a steal and is a great option if the bulkiness won't be an issue. If you're having issues with it that aren't related to its size (and possibly overheating, but I don't feel like that's going to be a big issue), it's probably you.

I like this portable SSD. It's only slightly bulkier than USB drives but with much bigger storage and fast speed to transfer files. Would even great if there are 2TB and 4TB version.

This is a high quality m.2 ssd packaged into the size of a larger flash drive. They could work on aesthetics though, could look nicer, but functionally excellent