SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable SSD V2 Review

The SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable SSD V2 ($299.99 for 1TB, $499.99 for 2TB as tested) is the pinnacle of SanDisk’s Extreme family of solid-state drives. It’s small, durable, and lightning quick. The Extreme Pro V2 is designed for video editors, photographers, animators, and other creatives who need to transport large volumes of files quickly using the latest USB 3.2 standard. It has some of the quickest transfer speeds we’ve seen from an external SSD. However, because native support for the top version of USB (the 20Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2×2) is harder to come by than a Sony PlayStation 5 on a store shelf, you’ll almost certainly need to invest in an expansion card if you don’t want to be limited to the slow speeds offered by a “mere” USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface.

SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable SSD V2

★★★★☆

An external SSD with blazing speed…on a port that's hard to find

Buy this item

PROS
Fast read and write times
Warranty: 5 years
Hardware-based encryption with 256-bit AES password protection
Durable

CONS
A port that allows the drive to run at full speed is rare in the wild, and a 2×2 expansion card is only available on desktops.

SANDISK EXTREME PRO PORTABLE SSD V2 SPECS

SSDs are small, fast, and long-lasting.

The Extreme Pro V2 is significantly larger than its Extreme Portable SSD V2 sister, measuring 0.4 by 2.3 by 4.4 inches, but extremely identical in design and color scheme. While the physical appearance of some other solid-state series, such as the WD My Passport SSD line, has changed drastically over time, the SanDisk Extreme design has kept the same: a compact, rubberized black slab with rounded corners and an orange-rimmed carabiner hook in one corner. Its forged-aluminum chassis is meant to keep cool even under heavy load, and it breezed through our 300GB of test data with barely a sweat.

The silicone coating of this rugged drive is rated to withstand a drop from 6.5 feet, and its ingress protection (IP) certification of IP55 gives some protection against sand and rain. It’s still susceptible to fine particles, and you shouldn’t leave it submerged for an extended period of time. The ADATA SE800 is a more ruggedized competitor SSD, with an IP68 rating—the highest of any consumer-grade drive we’ve tested—indicating that it’s dust- and water-resistant, thanks to its rubberized (and connected so it won’t get misplaced) port cover. There is no port cover on the Extreme Pro V2.

On the plus side, the drive comes with two 9-inch USB-C to USB-C and USB-C to USB-A connections. That’s preferable to a cumbersome converter dongle.

SanDisk Security software for Windows and macOS is included with the Extreme Pro V2. It has 256-bit AES hardware encryption, which is widely considered as the gold standard for consumer-drive data encryption.

SanDisk offers a hefty five-year guarantee, which we’ve seen on other Western Digital goods like the My Passport SSD 2020 edition. (SanDisk’s parent firm is WD.)

2×2 is the zippiest USB flavor yet.

When connected to a compatible USB-C port, the SanDisk Extreme Pro V2 supports the latest and fastest USB flavor (USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, also known as SuperSpeed USB 20Gbps), which delivers read and write transfer speeds of up to 2,000MBps. In our Crystal DiskMark 6.0 sequential read and write testing, it came up barely short (1,909MBps read, 1,919MBps write). Its results were also somewhat lower than those of the Seagate FireCuda Gaming SSD (1,992MBps read, 1,967MBps write), which uses the identical 2×2 interface. (See our SSD testing procedure.)

There is a catch, though: only a few PCs support USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, so you’ll need to invest in a motherboard or extension card that does, as we did with our SSD testbed, which included a $39 Orico expansion card.

When I asked SanDisk for advice on compatible systems, they said, “The number of pre-built computers that support USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 is still quite small. Early adopters who wish to construct or upgrade a PC with the latest technology might consider the Extreme Pro V2. We don’t care about brands when it comes to motherboards. 20Gbps USB is expected on AMD TRX40 systems from several manufacturers. Customers should search for an ASMedia ASM3242 chip or 20Gbps USB. Add-in cards are quite easy to obtain on Amazon or Newegg if they are using an Intel board or another AMD platform.”

You can use the Extreme Pro V2 if your computer doesn’t support USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, but your maximum speeds will be limited by your computer’s interface. Peak sequential read speeds of up to 1,050MBps and write speeds of up to 1,000MBps are common with USB 3.2 Gen 2, which is supported by the non-Pro SanDisk Extreme V2. The Extreme Pro V2 averaged 944MBps write performance and 878MBps read speed in our BlackMagic Disk Speed Test utilizing a USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface (on a MacBook Pro), similar to a plethora of other drives limited to that interface. Below are the results of this and other tests. ..

External SSD read and write speeds are capped at around 550MBps and 500MBps, respectively, by USB 3.2 Gen 1 (a.k.a. the old USB 3.0), which is often good enough for older external SSDs using SATA-based technology. While the Extreme Pro V2 drive can be used with any of these interfaces, buying one without a Gen 2×2 interface is like buying a Corvette for grocery shopping.

When it comes to fast sports vehicles, the Extreme Pro V2 commands a significant premium (real or potential). The 2TB model we tested costs 25 cents per gigabyte at list pricing, while the 1TB unit costs 30 cents per gig. The current Amazon costs are 17 cents per gigabyte for 2TB and 23 cents for 1TB.

The 1TB Seagate FireCuda Gaming SSD costs 28 cents per gig (21 cents on Amazon), while the 2TB variant costs 25 cents per gig from both the business and Amazon. The Editors’ Choice-winning WD My Passport SSD (2020), which is limited to USB 3.2 Gen 2, listed at 19 cents per gig for its 1TB model, but is presently discounted to 14 cents per gig on Amazon.

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With a Catch: A Content Creator’s Dream SSD

The SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable SSD V2, a high-performance SSD aimed at videographers and other multimedia creators, can transfer 4K and even 8K video files in a flash—as long as your computer is one of the few cutting-edge systems that supports USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 and its lightning-fast read and write speeds. On the system’s inside, you’ll also need a comparably fast source or destination drive.

You can add a motherboard or expansion card that provides such support if you’re ready to pay a little more and roll up your sleeves. Otherwise, you might save money by choosing the SanDisk Extreme V2 (non-Pro), WD My Passport SSD (2020), or the durable ADATA SE800, all of which are capable USB 3.2 Gen 2 drives. All are Editors’ Choice winners from PCMag.

SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable SSD V2

★★★★☆

An external SSD with blazing speed…on a port that's hard to find

Buy this item

PROS
Fast read and write times
Warranty: 5 years
Hardware-based encryption with 256-bit AES password protection
Durable

CONS
A port that allows the drive to run at full speed is rare in the wild, and a 2×2 expansion card is only available on desktops.

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