South Korean memory maker SK Hynix announced It intends to enter the consumer portable SSD market. Its first product, his Beetle X31, is said to be poised to meet the growing demand for portable SSDs and offer an attractive combination of “performance, convenient portability and stylish design.” increase. His palm-sized Beetle X31 from SK Hynix connects to other devices via USB and delivers up to 1,050 MB/s transfers.
Consumers will welcome SK Hynix’s entry. The company has a strong reputation for competitive memory and storage components, and more competition would be desirable to keep rivals such as Samsung and WD/SanDisk in check.
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Considering the design first, the Beetle X31 is very compact, described by SK Hynix as “palm-sized”. While the packaging depicts a chafer nestling in a sand dune, SK Hynix’s design looks more like a slightly worn-out bar of soap. A gold-coloured model is on display, and the manufacturer says the case is made of aluminum. A metal chassis is good for strength and heat dissipation, and SK Hynix sees this design aspect as a distinct advantage over its competitors.
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SK Hynix Beetle X31 |
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|---|---|
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capacity |
512 GB or 1 TB with DRAM buffer |
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reading speed |
1,050MB/s |
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writing speed |
1,000MB/s |
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interface |
USB type C |
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in the box |
2x cables (USB C-to-C and C-to-A) and bumper case |
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Physical |
74 x 46 x 14.8 mm, 53 grams |
The Beetle X31’s transfer performance, at least on paper, exactly matches the SanDisk Pro-G40 SSD, which is currently the top pick. Note, however, that SK Hynix devices are much smaller and weigh less than half that of SanDisk. SK Hynix also claims that their devices have excellent sustained performance. For example, a Beetle X31 with ample heatsink and DRAM cache is claimed to be able to transfer 500 GB files at an average speed of over 900 MB/s.
SK Hynix has hinted that the Beetle X31 is already available at the company’s home base. The portable SSD will be available in markets around the world, starting with the US later this month. At the time of this writing, no pricing has been announced for the 512 GB or 1 TB models.
If you’re interested in external storage devices, we encourage you to take a look at our Best External SSD and Hard Drives of 2023 feature. I hope you can get a sample of the Beetle X31 so you can decide if it’s worth joining the shortlist.
