Micron Joins the Portable SSD Market with Crucial X8 Portable SSD

Whether you take your game library between PCs or want to cut down on load times on your console, a fast external drive is a good thing to have. Micron announced today that they’re entering the market with their brand new Crucial X8 Portable SSD. With read speeds of more than a GB/s, they aim to deliver premier performance for the value.

The breakdown of the drive is as follows:

• Phenomenal read speeds up to 1,050MB/s
• Compatible with a broad range of computers, tablets, smartphones, and gaming consoles
• Stylish design with anodized aluminum unibody core
• Drop-proof up to 7.5 feet, extreme temperature-proof, shock-proof, and vibration-proof 
• Backed by a three-year limited warranty

Those speeds make it nearly twice as fast as a traditional SSD. This is made possible thanks to the internal NVMe memory and the USB Type-C Gen 3.2 connection. If it’s like other portable SSDs we’ve seen, connecting over USB 3.1, such as with a PS4 or Xbox One, is likely to reduce these speeds but still leave the drive much faster than a standard external solid state.        

The drive is available for pre-order now in 1TB ($189.99) and 500GB ($119.99) capacities. More information can the official Crucial website.