Firstly, I am writing this review for my uses a professional fashion photographer; and am supremely happy with it thus far. Let me explain:
Pros:
1. Slim form factor - absolutely no fear of it breaking in the Macbook's built in SD slot
2. Considerable space for files (and upgradable)
3. Reasonably priced
4. Performance prioritization (put things that do not require fast read/write speeds on the drive)
Neutral:
1. Speed - read speed: competitive with SD peers (was getting 88 MB/s); write speed: was getting peaks near 60 MB/s (though, for most normal purposes expect a bit slower). This is nowhere near what you'd get from a SSD but for my purposes does not impede workflow (loading applications and for those rarely used documents or massive support data files).
it's hard to compare an SD card with the latest in the macbook SSD lineup; they are simply two different tools with two different purposes.
Cons:
1. Cross compatibility - this is very much designed for a purpose. While I don't see it being a problem for my uses, it would be tricky to get this work with an external flash reader given the form factor (though, fundamentally, the contact points are the same as an SD card).
In my line of work, much is focused on workflow and especially so surrounding New York and Paris Fashion Week. Earlier in the summer I purchased a new Macbook Pro and went with one of the smaller hard drives. Sure, I could have gone larger but given that I shoot everything in RAW (25-30 MB/image) and a day of shooting runway can quickly stack up into thousands of images, it's important to establish off-machine storage and back-up.
A key point in all this is the fact that Lightroom does some lovely trickery that allows the editing process to be done independent of connection to original files; though, this 'preview' file can get rather bloated (for me, currently 40GB for 80,000 photos). Being able to hop back and find images quickly from years ago is rather handy. Were something to happen to this file - no problem, just re-generate from the untouched originals. It is worth noting that it does take a little longer for Lightroom to load the file directories on initial application start-up, but once open performance lag is not apparent - loading of original files is just as fast as they are located on the laptop SSD (or external backup).
All this to summarize why I'm so happy with this little drive:
1. everything could be lost on it and nothing, really, would be lost
2. it's not the fastest on the block but it frees up massive space for where I want top performance
| Color | Black/silver |
|---|---|
| Special Feature | Lightweight |
| Read Speed | 95 |
| Item Weight | 0.02 Pounds |
| Warranty Type | Limited |
| Write Speed | 60 |
| Hardware Interface | SDHC |
| Manufacturer | Transcend Information |
| UPC | 760557832560 |
| Standing screen display size | 15 Inches |
| RAM | 256 GB |
| Hard Drive | Memory Card |
