G-DRIVE slim SSD USB-C drive reviewed

USB-C Power: the G-DRIVE slim SSD USB-C.

G-Technology recently expanded its G-DRIVE portfolio, with its first solid state portable drive, the G-DRIVE slim SSD USB-C. David Shapton took one for a spin.

Ever since I started to use a 12" Macbook Retina as my main mobile computing device, I've been looking for an external disk drive to use with it. As is famously known, this ultra-slim Macbook only has a single port; a USB-C connection that is fast enough to cope with external drives, displays and literally everything else that you might want to connect to this wafer-thin laptop.

I've just started using a G-DRIVE slim SSD USB-C external drive. It's a 500GB device with a $229 list price and a single USB-C connector, but comes with both USB-C to USB-C and USB-C to USB 3 (Type A) cables.

The drive weighs, well, virtually nothing. SSDs don't have the heavy mechanical parts of hard drives and this is a device that you can carry everywhere unnoticed until you need it.

It's fast, of course, thanks to the combination of a solid state drive and a very quick interface. You can see from the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test that write speeds are nearly 310MB/s and read speeds are around 420MB/s. I should reiterate that I tested this on a Macbook 12" Retina — a machine that is not noted for being fast — but this is impressive nevertheless and with today's big files, you need all the speed you can get.

We haven't got any new Macbook Pros yet. These recently announced models, the ones with the touch bar, are like the 12" Macbook in that they only come with USB C. So the G-Technology G-Drive slim SSD USB-C is a very timely product.

I can see this drive quickly being adopted as a must-have tool for anyone wanting to move files around quickly. It's lightweight, fast, and extremely easy to use. I was up and running within seconds of unboxing it.

Highly recommended.