If you actually read the review, you'll find that this drive has poor performance compared to its rivals. Also, I'm uncertain how "USB thumb drive" would ever be classified as a "form factor". They literally come in many shapes and sizes.
It did fine. The rivals are either 2-2.5" connected by cable (T7, Envoy Pro) or a thin proper thumb drive that forces you to choose USB A/C and stutters to 50MB/s transferring large loads (DataTraveler). Thumb is an important form factor for some - keychain portability and not blocking adjacent USB ports. The compromise is thermal dissipation, and review shows Envoy Mini is more efficient than DTMax.
If you actually read my comment (jeez, such hostility from someone that's wrong…), you notice I wrote for sneakernet.
For that, the form factor is much better: no flailing cables, not too large even for small pockets, not too large to block adjacent ports, light enough to keep on you 24x7, durable caps, etc.
How do you not understand that a USB flash drive can have multiple form factors? How do you misread a comment so badly? See, I wouldn't post a comment if I was as confused as you.
I did not actually have pictures of the other items to compare so I had no idea this USB thumb drive was being compared to non-USB thumb drive devices. I did check that they were all USB connected devices before posting.
Regarding sneakernet, I did not cache the reference. I thought that practice was actually dead.
Now that I understand I have to say that USB thumb drives, at least several that I have owned, do block the other USB ports. To the point where I bought a 6in extension cable. It doesn't take much to block the next port over.
Absence of waterproofing may not be a significant problem. As someone with a history of running USB storage through laundry (4 different drives so far - wash and high temp dry - two of them have been neglected in that manner multiple times), nothing I've done has caused a failure. One even survived as a bare PCB after the cheap plastic casing came apart. I just reassembled the plastic parts and its currently held together with masking tape. You'd be surprised how durable solid state storage can be even when neglected and abused.
So you should be able to ditch the bulky A-to-C adapter by unscrewing the Torx screws. I've been looking a long time for a good replacement for my 2015 vintage Lexar Jumpdrive P20. The plastic construction of the Kingston or SanDisk Extreme rule them out. The dual A and C swiveling SanDisk Ultra Drive Luxe is convenient and it's available in capacities up to 1TB but it's also very slow.
I've had one of these for almost a year and am thrilled you reviewed it. After seeing it at CES last year (where I believe it was announced) I got one as soon as it came out and it's basically my entire IT portfolio (images, ISO's, tools, software) in a highly accessible portable fast enclosure.
It's worth pointing out it is also bootable to the point you could run an entire system off it if need be. I have mine setup to boot WinPE.
For IT folks, that is the perfect use-case for these dual-interface high-performance thumb drives. I have been using an old 128GB NVMe SSD in a dual-interface 'thumb form-factor' enclosure (Akasa) for a couple of years now (with Medicat USB installed).
Since the use-case is mostly read-heavy after the initial loading, something like the Envoy Pro Mini is a good enough alternative. Despite not emerging the outright victor in any of the short-term benchmark numbers, I think OWC has a winner here. Some additional SLC cache would be nice to have, but that is nit-picking at this stage.
Hopefully, OWC keeps improving this product with newer NAND generations and controllers (Gen 2x2 / USB4 etc.)
I like the performance, but the fact that this isn't natively USB-C is a downer. It's 2023, and OWC is a company that has its roots in providing Mac accessories. It should be a USB-C drive with an adapter for A, not the other way around. After all, it's not like USB-A adoption is increasing over time.
I can hazard a guess here... the number of mating cycles for Type-A male to Type-A female is highly likely to be much more than the number of mating cycles for a Type-C male to Type-C female. So, this product design is likely to have a higher MTBF.
Either Type-C to Type-A or Type-A to Type-C doesn't make a difference to the end consumer. In any case, in the default state (out of the box), the drive is Type-C. One has to explicitly pull back and swivel the core component to make it a Type-A drive.
Ahh, you may very well be right about mating cycles. USB-A has always been very forgiving in that regard.
As for the adapter, I bring the point up because the drive could have been made a good bit smaller otherwise. Integrating an adapter like that adds a lot of questionable heft to the drive.
Anandtech management: Let's review SSDs and power supplies. That will get people to visit Anandtech. People love reading SSD and power supply reviews.
Come on anandtech. You routinely ignore interesting and popular products such as M1 Ultra but you keep reviewing SSDs and power supplies, which no one really cares about. Anandtech didn't get famous by reviewing PSUs and SSDs. Get back to hardcore CPU reviews.
I think people read the comments in part to see how your crying about the lack of Apple reviews easily found by typing "M1 Ultra Review" into a search engine - something that requires far fewer keystrokes than the salty tears deposited here that reinforces several Apple fan stereotypes.
I care about both of those things. And it's not like reviewing SSDs and PSUs are stopping them from reviewing other things. If anything, I imagine what is keeping them from reviewing Apple CPUs is Apple - or at least, their tendency to provide next to zero real technical detail about their products.
Can't know for sure as you didn't specify what "Sabrent enclosure" you're referring to, but I'm guessing that combo does not result in the same form factor as this thumb drive.
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ikjadoon - Thursday, March 2, 2023 - link
I almost bought this a few weeks ago, thinking it had some water resistance. Turns out, none.Unfortunately to me, drives that fit onto a keychain will one day end get exposed to the rain and I'd hate to lose a $90 or $120 SSD that way.
Otherwise, it's perfect. They've nailed the sneakernet re: performance, compatibility, and form factor.
ballsystemlord - Thursday, March 2, 2023 - link
If you actually read the review, you'll find that this drive has poor performance compared to its rivals.Also, I'm uncertain how "USB thumb drive" would ever be classified as a "form factor". They literally come in many shapes and sizes.
Wrs - Thursday, March 2, 2023 - link
It did fine. The rivals are either 2-2.5" connected by cable (T7, Envoy Pro) or a thin proper thumb drive that forces you to choose USB A/C and stutters to 50MB/s transferring large loads (DataTraveler).Thumb is an important form factor for some - keychain portability and not blocking adjacent USB ports. The compromise is thermal dissipation, and review shows Envoy Mini is more efficient than DTMax.
ikjadoon - Friday, March 3, 2023 - link
If you actually read my comment (jeez, such hostility from someone that's wrong…), you notice I wrote for sneakernet.For that, the form factor is much better: no flailing cables, not too large even for small pockets, not too large to block adjacent ports, light enough to keep on you 24x7, durable caps, etc.
How do you not understand that a USB flash drive can have multiple form factors? How do you misread a comment so badly? See, I wouldn't post a comment if I was as confused as you.
Sigh….
ballsystemlord - Friday, March 3, 2023 - link
I did not actually have pictures of the other items to compare so I had no idea this USB thumb drive was being compared to non-USB thumb drive devices. I did check that they were all USB connected devices before posting.Regarding sneakernet, I did not cache the reference. I thought that practice was actually dead.
Now that I understand I have to say that USB thumb drives, at least several that I have owned, do block the other USB ports. To the point where I bought a 6in extension cable. It doesn't take much to block the next port over.
PeachNCream - Friday, March 3, 2023 - link
Absence of waterproofing may not be a significant problem. As someone with a history of running USB storage through laundry (4 different drives so far - wash and high temp dry - two of them have been neglected in that manner multiple times), nothing I've done has caused a failure. One even survived as a bare PCB after the cheap plastic casing came apart. I just reassembled the plastic parts and its currently held together with masking tape. You'd be surprised how durable solid state storage can be even when neglected and abused.fazalmajid - Thursday, March 2, 2023 - link
So you should be able to ditch the bulky A-to-C adapter by unscrewing the Torx screws. I've been looking a long time for a good replacement for my 2015 vintage Lexar Jumpdrive P20. The plastic construction of the Kingston or SanDisk Extreme rule them out. The dual A and C swiveling SanDisk Ultra Drive Luxe is convenient and it's available in capacities up to 1TB but it's also very slow.Samus - Thursday, March 2, 2023 - link
I've had one of these for almost a year and am thrilled you reviewed it. After seeing it at CES last year (where I believe it was announced) I got one as soon as it came out and it's basically my entire IT portfolio (images, ISO's, tools, software) in a highly accessible portable fast enclosure.It's worth pointing out it is also bootable to the point you could run an entire system off it if need be. I have mine setup to boot WinPE.
ganeshts - Thursday, March 2, 2023 - link
For IT folks, that is the perfect use-case for these dual-interface high-performance thumb drives. I have been using an old 128GB NVMe SSD in a dual-interface 'thumb form-factor' enclosure (Akasa) for a couple of years now (with Medicat USB installed).Since the use-case is mostly read-heavy after the initial loading, something like the Envoy Pro Mini is a good enough alternative. Despite not emerging the outright victor in any of the short-term benchmark numbers, I think OWC has a winner here. Some additional SLC cache would be nice to have, but that is nit-picking at this stage.
Hopefully, OWC keeps improving this product with newer NAND generations and controllers (Gen 2x2 / USB4 etc.)
ViRGE - Thursday, March 2, 2023 - link
I like the performance, but the fact that this isn't natively USB-C is a downer. It's 2023, and OWC is a company that has its roots in providing Mac accessories. It should be a USB-C drive with an adapter for A, not the other way around. After all, it's not like USB-A adoption is increasing over time.ganeshts - Thursday, March 2, 2023 - link
I can hazard a guess here... the number of mating cycles for Type-A male to Type-A female is highly likely to be much more than the number of mating cycles for a Type-C male to Type-C female. So, this product design is likely to have a higher MTBF.Either Type-C to Type-A or Type-A to Type-C doesn't make a difference to the end consumer. In any case, in the default state (out of the box), the drive is Type-C. One has to explicitly pull back and swivel the core component to make it a Type-A drive.
ViRGE - Thursday, March 2, 2023 - link
Ahh, you may very well be right about mating cycles. USB-A has always been very forgiving in that regard.As for the adapter, I bring the point up because the drive could have been made a good bit smaller otherwise. Integrating an adapter like that adds a lot of questionable heft to the drive.
lemurbutton - Thursday, March 2, 2023 - link
Anandtech management: Let's review SSDs and power supplies. That will get people to visit Anandtech. People love reading SSD and power supply reviews.Come on anandtech. You routinely ignore interesting and popular products such as M1 Ultra but you keep reviewing SSDs and power supplies, which no one really cares about. Anandtech didn't get famous by reviewing PSUs and SSDs. Get back to hardcore CPU reviews.
PeachNCream - Friday, March 3, 2023 - link
I think people read the comments in part to see how your crying about the lack of Apple reviews easily found by typing "M1 Ultra Review" into a search engine - something that requires far fewer keystrokes than the salty tears deposited here that reinforces several Apple fan stereotypes.Maltz - Saturday, April 1, 2023 - link
I care about both of those things. And it's not like reviewing SSDs and PSUs are stopping them from reviewing other things. If anything, I imagine what is keeping them from reviewing Apple CPUs is Apple - or at least, their tendency to provide next to zero real technical detail about their products.alexdi - Friday, March 3, 2023 - link
P31 SSD + Sabrent enclosure. 1000 MB/s writes for the entire drive, no throttling. $100 for the pair most of the time.kyuu - Monday, March 6, 2023 - link
Can't know for sure as you didn't specify what "Sabrent enclosure" you're referring to, but I'm guessing that combo does not result in the same form factor as this thumb drive.NetMage - Tuesday, March 28, 2023 - link
Why is this article filled with so much filler text and yet has no MSRP or street pricing?