The SanDisk portable SSD is SanDisk's economic proposal, for those who need a small, portable and silent product, devoted above all to storage, with some ambitions on virtualization.
Calimero
With its 9.91 × 46.9 × 96.9mm SanDisk Portable SSD it is one of the smallest products in the category of external SSD portable drives , even smaller than the SanDisk Extreme V2 Portable SSD, which is formally the faster sibling, albeit slightly.
Aesthetically it is a unit with a plastic case, mostly empty to the touch (probably the card takes up less space than the external one), whose upper surface is decorated with a series of hollowed out dots and the logo in slight relief.
SanDisk Portable SSD is so small it fits in the palm of your hand
In one of the vertices there is a soft red rubber ring, suitable to be hooked somewhere (or to hook, for example, to a keychain) and further down on the same side in a rather unusual position, the USB-C connector 3.2.
The unit is very light, just 40 grams, and the rounded shape makes it an excellent keychain or as a support unit when we are on the move.
The shape has, presumably, been studied much larger than what the real memory requirement is but probably the guys at SanDisk have decided that making it smaller would have meant a greater rate of loss.
For use with Mac and Windows
The unit arrives formatted in ExFAT, a filesystem that allows it to be used both on macOS and on Windows, and which from our texts also on other units, has no significant differences compared to the APFS format, typical of internal Mac drives.
The cable that came in the box is a USB-C / USB-A, which went badly with a solid state drive like this one and we opted for a USB-C / USB-C 3.2 cable, as for those with a MacBook Pro the solution is to use such a cable or opt for an external HUB (in the case of other additional connections) such as the economical VAVA Hub 8 in 1 USB-C or the more professional Caldigit SOHO Dock.
Not the highest numbers, but still more than good values for lean storage and use with virtual machines
For everything, carefully
From an operational point of view we have used the disk in various ways: as a reservoir for the most important documents (setting aside for the moment the most performing SanDisk Extreme V2 portable SSD), but also as a support for the various virtual machines of Parallels Desktop 16 (where we have instances of Windows 10, Linux Mint and macOS): in both cases the operation was good, a sign that the maturity of these technologies has reached more than acceptable levels.
Even in extreme conditions the disc has its say, such as for the management of a DNG archive with Lightroom, but we are on a very delicate field (because it depends on the type of file) and in this sense it is obviously recommended to use of a Pro unit.
SanDisk Portable SSD should be seen as an external drive to carry around and use on the fly for fast backup, data retrieval and support of files that will then go to more capable units, such as internal disks.
The duality, at least in form, comes with products like the WD MyPassport Go 2020, which is larger, but features the same price and very similar performance.
Family Photo: Side by Side with a SanDisk Extreme V2 Portable SSD
Considerations
In SanDisk's proposal, the SanDisk portable SSD is the smallest and most affordable external drive, and obviously superior to any mechanical unit on the list, despite having a very attractive access price (less than 90 Euros in the 480 GB version) .
It is not an external drive that a photographer or professional video maker can count on, but it can become the best friend for those who use it for classic graphics, for those who need an external drive fast enough for virtual discs, for games or for a deposit of files to be transferred quickly between one computer and another.
Much better than any USB stick on the market today, just a little bit bigger.
The rubber ring is convenient to attach it to something, but also to find it in the bag 
The connector is in a somewhat unusual position 
thin, basically like a pencil
Pro:
• Small and very light • Shock resistant • The cheapest solution from SanDisk
Cons:
• Not suitable for Pro jobs
Price:
• 89.99 Euro (480 GB) • 139.99 Euro (1 TB) • 279.99 Euro (2 TB)
SanDisk portable SSD is available starting from the Italian website of the parent company or you can find it more conveniently also at Amazon.it in the sizes of 480 GB, 1 or 2 TB.
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