Portable bus-powered SSDs are a growing segment of the direct-attached storage market. The ongoing glut in flash memory (and the growing confidence of flash vendors in QLC) has brought down the price of these drives. Sabrent, a computer peripherals and accessories manufacturer, has made a name for itself in the space by catering to niche segments such as ultra-high capacity and compact SSDs. The company sent over a bunch of unique external SSDs to put through our strenuous review process. Today's review takes a look at the 2TB version of the Rocket Nano Rugged.

Introduction

External bus-powered storage devices have grown both in storage capacity as well as speeds over the last decade. Thanks to rapid advancements in flash technology (including the advent of 3D NAND and NVMe) as well as faster host interfaces (such as Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.x), we now have palm-sized flash-based storage devices capable of delivering 2GBps+ speeds. Broadly speaking, there are five distinct performance levels in this market:

• 2GBps+ drives with Thunderbolt 3, using NVMe SSDs
• 2GBps drives with USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, using NVMe SSDs
• 1GBps drives with USB 3.2 Gen 2, using NVMe SSDs
• 500MBps drives with USB 3.2 Gen 1 (or, Gen 2, in some cases), using SATA SSDs
• Sub-400MBps drives with USB 3.2 Gen 1, using a flash controller with a direct USB interface

The Sabrent Rocket Nano Rugged we are looking at today belongs to the third category in the above list. It is a compact external SSD sporting a M.2 2242 NVMe SSD inside. The casing is all-metal, and the drive is IP67 rated for protection against dust ingress and water immersion. Thanks to its rubber bumper, it is also resilient to accidental drops.

Sabrent packages the Rocket Nano Rugged in a metal case. It comes with a Type-C to Type-A, and a Type-C to Type-C cable. The gallery below shows additional photographs of the packaging and the drive itself.

The review compares the Rocket Nano Rugged 2TB against the other 2TB drives reviewed earlier.

• Sabrent Rocket Nano Rugged 2TB
• Crucial Portable SSD X8 2TB
• OWC Envoy Pro EX USB-C 2TB
• SanDisk Extreme PRO Portable SSD v2 2TB [JHL6540]

A quick overview of the internal capabilities of the storage devices is given by CrystalDiskInfo.

Drive Power Consumption - CrystalDiskMark Workloads

Sabrent Rocket Nano Rugged 2TBCrucial Portable SSD X8 2TBOWC Envoy Pro EX USB-C 2TBSanDisk Extreme PRO Portable SSD v2 2TB [JHL6540]Expand All

The DRAM-less nature is an advantage for the Rocket Nano Rugged here, with the drive recording the lowest peak power consumption of all four considered drives. The idle power at 1.26 is reasonable, though not as low as the 0.86W of the OWC Envoy Pro EX USB-C drive.

Pricing

The price of flash-based storage devices tend to fluctuate quite a bit over time. However, the relative difference between different models usually doesn't change. The table below summarizes the product links and pricing for the various units discussed in the review.

The Sabrent Rocket Nano has a very reasonable price in terms of the cost per GB - at approximately 16 cents per GB, it is the most economical of the TLC drives in the mix.

Final Words

After careful analysis of various aspects (including benchmark numbers, temperatures, power consumption, and pricing), it is clear that the appeal of the Sabrent Rocket Nano Rugged is not in the performance numbers, but the unique nature - To the best of our knowledge, there is no other 2TB external SSD equipped with 3D TLC flash with a footprint as small as that of the Rocket Nano Rugged. The industrial design is also attractive, though that is a subjective metric. Sabrent has opted for some tradeoffs to achieve the cost and compact sizing - a DRAM-less internal SSD had to be used, and that pulls down the performance numbers compared to other 2TB drives in the market. For normal consumer workloads and casual usage, this drawback might not be a factor to consider at all. The IP67 rating and rugged nature further enhance the appeal of the drive - the OWC Envoy Pro EX USB-C also has a IP67 rating, but it is priced significantly higher.

The thermal profile of the Sabrent Rocket Nano is good enough to prevent it from getting too hot to touch. In any case, the rubber bumper ensures that the hot metal casing is never a problem for handling. Overall, the Sabrent Rocket Nano stands out in the crowded market thanks to its unique feature set and cost-performance balance. At $330 for the 2TB version, it presents a compelling option for the casual user looking to source a compact high-capacity external SSD.