Portable SSD is known for its fast transfer speed and near-immune to any kind of minor drop as compared to a traditional portable hard drive. The Transcend ESD350C is probably the next level to that, as it is equipped with the same three-stage shock protection as Transcend’s award-winning rugged hard drives, as well as an even faster transfer speed than the ESD250C – Let’s see how what of performance we can really expect from the ESD350C.
Specifications
| Model | ESD350C |
| Dimensions | 96.5 mm x 53.6 mm x 12.5 mm |
| Weight | 58g |
| Color | Navy Blue |
| Connection Interface | USB 3.1 Gen 2 |
| USB Type | USB to USB-C/USB-C to USB-C |
| Flash Type | 3D NAND flash |
| Capacity | 240GB/480GB/960GB (cables included) |
| Read Speed | Up to 1050 MB/s |
| Write Speed | Up to 950 MB/s |
| Warranty | 3-year Limited Warranty |
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows 7/8/10 and Mac OS 10 or later |
Unboxing
Transcend kept things simple for its product and the ESD350C stays aligned to that. A cutout with a hard plastic cover can be found at the front of the box which serves as a product display window. Features and the capacity of the SSD can be found at the front of the box as well.
There’s not much information at the back of the box, but you can scan the QR code on the fly which will lead you to the product page if you wish to learn more about the product.
Inside the box, you’ll find the product catalog – as usual, a USB type-A to type-C, a USB Type-C to Type-C data cable, and the Transcend ESD250C 240GB.
The ESD350C USB 3.1 Gen 2 Portable SSD
At first glance, the ESD350C design resembles the rest of Transcend’s rugged hard drive, but in a much smaller size that can easily fit right inside a pocket.
The three parts that made up the ESD350C includes the outer rubber cover and the Aluminum hard shell. The rubber cover acts as a simple shock protection mechanism for the SSD, which the Aluminum hard shell acts as a heatsink to help the SSD to dissipate heat faster.
The inner hard plastic shell is sealed with a warranty sticker on both sides to prevent unwanted tampering. You can replace the SSD inside the shell, but it requires the removal of both stickers, which will result in the void of the 3-year limited warranty from Transcend.
As the C in its name suggests, the ESD350C comes with a USB Type-C port that is way easier to connect to as compared to micro USB, and it can be connected to a mobile device that supports OTG. That aside, the ESD350C also features UASP support that allows the drive to perform at a fast transfer speed that goes up to 1,050MB/s read and 950MB/s write.
Test System Setup
| CPU | Intel Core i7 8700K @5GHz / AMD Ryzen 9 3900X |
| Motherboard | ASUS ROG Maximus X Apex / MSI MEG X570 GODLIKE |
| Memory | G.Skill TridentZ RGB Royal 16GB @3600MHz |
| Graphics Card | Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 Ti AMP Edition |
| Power Supply | Enermax MaxTytan 1250W |
| Primary Storage | Gigabyte UD PRO 512GB SATA SSD |
| Secondary Storage | WD Black 6TB |
| CPU Cooler | Thermaltake Floe Riing 360 RGB |
| Chassis | Cooler Master Test Bench V1 |
| Operating System | Windows 10 64bit |
Synthetic Benchmarks
CrystalDiskMark
Developed by a Japanese coder that goes by the nickname Hiyohiyo, CrystalDiskMark is one of the most frequent used SSD Benchmark utility to measure SSD’s read and write performance.
AS SSD Benchmark
Widely used SSD benchmarking utility that uses incompressible data to simulate the worst possible scenario for an SSD and thus giving a much lower sequential read and write speed result than what has been stated by the manufacturer as a result of the heavy workload.
ATTO Disk Benchmark
The most frequently used benchmarking utility by many manufacturers for performance specification. As ATTO Disk Benchmark uses compressible data rather than incompressible data, it results in higher benchmark scores.
File Transfer Speed Test
For this test, we’re using a collection of test data which consists of large and small files total up to 50GB, both compressible and incompressible (zip file, photos, videos, text file).
The copy speed from ESD350C to another NVMe SSD on both AMD and Intel test system peaked at the 800MB/s range, with Intel showing a slightly faster performance (50MB/s) as compared to AMD.
The peak write performance on both Intel and AMD is showing an even bigger gap, with Intel leading at almost 200MB/s difference. Though, the file writing process isn’t going as smooth as what we have observed in the test before this – somewhat inconsistent write performance. It’s unlike what we’ve seen in the synthetic benchmark and this actually applies to all kind of files that we’ve used in the copy test.
Final Thoughts
Performance wise, the ESD350C is way faster than most portable SSD you’ll find in the market, especially with its fast read speed that can go up to 1,050MB/s. The write performance is somewhat inconsistent, but you’ll still be able to copy large files to the drive that goes way faster than what you’ll get on a traditional mechanical hard drive.
Retailing at RM559, the ESD350C 480GB isn’t the cheapest portable SSD around but it’s not that hard to justify the price if we were to look at what the SSD has to offer. Even though we did find the extra protection to be pretty optional, the Aluminum hard shell does come in really useful as a heatsink to cool down faster – especially for the fast transfer speed of 1,050MB/s.
Pros
- Fast transfer speed (up to 1,050MB/s read)
- Shock protection design
- Aluminum hard shell that acts as a heatsink
- Comes with USB Type-C to Type-C data cable
- Support OTG function
- 3-year limited warranty from Transcend
Cons
- Inconsistent write performance
