New OWC portable USB-C SSD is tiny, rugged, and fast

Mac upgrade specialist OWC today announced the Envoy Pro, a tiny and portable USB-C SSD that starts at $99.

The Envoy Pro can reach up to 1011MB/s speeds, enough to transfer 91 high-resolution photos in one second or a 5GB movie in less than five seconds. The drive is a USB 3.2 type-C bus-powered and plug-and-play model, not requiring any power adapters or software to use with a Mac. It operates silently and has a drive-status LED on its side. The drive includes a USB-C to USB-A adapter to widen compatibility.

The tiny drive is small enough to fit in a pocket, measuring 3 x 2.1 x 0.5 inch and weighing 3 oz.

The portable SSD uses a heat-dissipating aircraft-grade aluminum exterior. Its IP67 rating means it's dust-proof and water-resistant for up to 30 minutes at less than one meter.

The 240GB and 480GB variants are available now, ringing up for $99 and $149, respectively. Versions with 1TB and 2TB storage arrive in early-to-mid November, retailing for $199 and $369. OWC includes a three-year limited warranty with the drive.

8 Comments

MacPro 19845 comments · 18 Years

About 4 years ago

bsbeamer 77 comments · 16 Years

The USB-C NVMe enclosures that operate at 10Gbps will run much cooler than the 40Gbps via true TB3. Speed is sacrificed as a tradeoff. Usually under 1000MB/s for 10Gbps adapters via USB-C to 2000-2500MB/s for 40Gbps via TB3 with the same NVMe blade.

The links in the post above are SATA SSDs. Fine for bigger mostly faster storage. There are ways to get around 450MB/s-500MB/s when using better adapters/enclosures via USB-C.

bsbeamer said:

The USB-C NVMe enclosures that operate at 10Gbps will run much cooler than the 40Gbps via true TB3. Speed is sacrificed as a tradeoff. Usually under 1000MB/s for 10Gbps adapters via USB-C to 2000-2500MB/s for 40Gbps via TB3 with the same NVMe blade.

The links in the post above are SATA SSDs. Fine for bigger mostly faster storage. There are ways to get around 450MB/s-500MB/s when using better adapters/enclosures via USB-C.

I find for most uses the speeds are fine although I have a lashup with 4 SATA SSDs that gets around 1,500 MB/s using Apple's own RAID 0 over TB3, which is nice for Photoshop scratch and Capture One 2020. The point is they are all homemade, and dirt cheap. BTW I tried using SoftRAID and it totally messed up a few things on a 24 TB RAID I use for Photos and iCloud linkage amongst other things. I reverted to Apple drivers and all is well again.