Other World Computing (OWC) has announced the OWC Envoy Pro FX, a universally compatible Thunderbolt and USB-C portable SSD that, according to the company, can reach up to 2800 MB / s and is dust, water and shock proof.
Envoy Pro FX is designed for Mac and PC compatibility, and the bus-powered SSD promises to impress both for its robustness and its speed. The inverter uses an aluminum housing with heat dissipation with an IP67 rating. IP67 means that the drive is fully protected against dust and can be submerged in up to 15 cm of water for up to 30 minutes. The OWC claims that this level of protection is designed to keep the drive (and therefore all data stored on it) safe, even in the dirtiest and most humid environments. The company also says that the unit is protected by “MIL-STD810G certified military grade drop resistance”.
The OWC says Envoy Pro FX supports the maximum performance capability of any Thunderbolt and USB interface, which means transfer speeds of up to 2800 MB / s.
The SSD will be available in four different size configurations: 240 GB for $ 169, 480 GB for $ 199, 1 TB for $ 299 and 2 TB for $ 479. The Envoy Pro FX comes with a 3 year limited OWC warranty and will begin to be marketed this month.
OWC enters a competitive field of portable SSDs against Samsung, SanDisk, LaCie and G-Tech. Samsung and SanDisk claim read speeds of up to 540 MB / s on their 2 TB USB-C drives that cost $ 230 (and LaCie asks for $ 380 for the iteration), but are obviously less protected from the elements and reach just a fraction of the top transfer speeds that the OWC promises. The closest competitor to the Envoy Pro is probably the G-Technology G-DRIVE mobile Pro Thunderbolt 3, which has the same data transfer speed specification of 2,800 MB / s and 2 TB capacity, but costs $ 1,500. I reviewed the G-Technology drive in 2019 and although it delivers on these performance promises, it is extremely expensive (cheaper, it costs only $ 700).
Compared to that price, the OWC looks like a much smarter purchase.