There may be faster external drives around than the Plugable Thunderbolt 3 NVMe External SSD, but I haven’t used one. However, speed comes at a price.
Targeted to content creators such as like film producers and videographers, the NVMe is a solid state drive that offers creators up to 1TB or 2TB of extra storage and speeds of up to 2800 MB/second read and 1800 MB/second write. That some serious storage capacity and speed — all available without the need for an external power connection. For example, the NVMe 1TB drive is capable of storing 155 minutes of ProRes 422 HQ 4K video or 175 minutes of DnXHR HQ 4K video.
he drive interfaces directly with computer CPUs via PCI Express, resulting in up to 4x faster transfer speeds than SATA. The NVMe is pre-formatted with exFAT right out of the box to make it compatible and interchangeable with any Thunderbolt 3-enabled Mac or Windows system.
The drive should automatically be recognized without the need to initialize and format before use. If the drive has been reformatted after purchase with a file system not natively supported by your operating system, it may need to be mounted manually
The drive — weighing 6.1 ounces with a surface area slightly larger than a smartphone — is extremely portable. Encased in anodized aluminum, the full metal body is designed to keep the SSD cool while also protecting your data. Another nice touch: it comes with a velvet carrying case.
The downside for some folks: the NVMe isn’t compatible with Boot Camp, the a utility that comes with your Mac and lets you switch between macOS and Windows. That’s not a big deal for me since I never run any Windows apps on my Macs, but you have been warned.
Otherwise, the Plugable Thunderbolt 3 NVMe External SSD is a near-perfect external drive for content creators. It’s available for $299 for the 1TB version and $499 for the 2TB version on Amazon.com with a launch discount of $50 off the 1TB drive, and $100 off the 2TB drive.
Apple World Today Rating (out of 5 stars): ★★★★
