Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsIt’s getting better…
Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2023
I’m using a MacBook Pro 16 inch M1 Pro Laptop. First off forget running benchmarks, they mean nothing. Real world this drive is not faster than the Crucial X8 in transfers files from the laptop. It’s writing at about 300mb/s which less than 1/3rd of its advertised speed. Its actually a few seconds slower than the X8 it replaces. Very disappointed. Yes it’s smaller but size isn’t really a issue. Constant writes is the issue and this drive can’t perform. Just like the X8 read speeds are good. Also the drive isn’t supported by Crucial’s own software at launch, it won’t even recognize it. The X8 is recognized just fine. At the time of this review the x9 is $15 more than the X8 and it’s not worth it. Save the $15 and get a longer cable as the cable that comes with this drive is a joke. It’s so short that it’s unusable. If you’re hoping to upgrade from a X8 to a X9, there is no upgrade. Performance is identical in real world. Don’t look at the black magic speed test and think you’re getting this kind of speed because you’re not. I’m hoping future software support and firmware updates make this drive a little better as of now 2 stars is my maximum rating.
Update: 9/11/23
Finally we have software support for the drive, so it’s windows only. Basically if you own a Mac you’ll never be able to update the firmware, as crucial doesn’t care about mac users. I updated the firmware using a windows 11 laptop. The new firmware update boosted synthetic benchmarks. 950mb/s read and write, before it was in the 850 range. I gave the drive a extra star in my update because it’s been rock solid and doesn’t overheat. When it comes to read speeds I see zero lag in my photo catalog. I purchased a OWC thunderbolt cable which is excellent and long enough. I will report back when I do more massive writes to see if the performance was impacted by the new firmware in the real world.
