Best Portable SSDs for Mac & iPad (2023)! Samsung, LaCie, CalDigit, & More!

In this video, I round up my favorite portable SSDs -- both USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 -- for iPad and Mac. At the end, I give my recommendation for best overall, honorable mention, best rugged, and fastest.

Chapters ➡
0:00 Intro
1:06 CalDigit Tuff nano
2:14 Samsung T7
3:40 Crucial X6
4:36 LaCie Rugged SSD
616 Glyph Atom Pro
7:37 Sandisk Extreme Portable SSD
9:09 LaCie Mobile SSD
10:19 Fantom Drives eXtreme SSD
11:14 Drive Recommendations

Grab the LOWEST prices on Apple gear! 👇

Follow our social channels! 👇

New here? AppleInsider has been around since the 1997 covering anything, and everything Apple. This YouTube channel will give you the best coverage for anything Apple related. New MacBooks? We'll cover them! New iPhones? We got you covered on that as well. Want to get the most out of your new Apple product? We've got videos to help you with that. Make sure to subscribe, comment, and share our videos!

AppleInsider may earn commission on purchases made through affiliate links.

[NRafa]

DON’T buy the Sandisk Extreme SSD if it’s for an IPad. It doesn’t work with my IPad Air 4. Plus Sandisk says that it’s not made/compatible for iPads. Just Pc/computer . This guy should’ve clarified that.

[RameshKumar-ngnf]

Andrew, i got the Samsung T7, 1TB a week back and its lightning fast. Dont have any lags in file reading or writing and very tiny to carry .
Happy with the investment even though its expensive, worth the money spent.

[craigjackson]

I flick files between Mac and PC all the time. Use M.2 drive with external case. Super fast

[seecraig]

Given the speeds, for those who do demanding video editing, it may be best to get the biggest possible internal SSD since the only external SSDs that match the internal speed may be about as expensive as the BTO internal SSDs.

[MyRackley]

Fun fact: La Cie is a pun. The parent company is Seagate and La Cie is French for "The Company". The enclosed chip is called a FireCuda, which presumably is some sort of mythical sea monster. 🌊

[xko]

12:00 you mean Sandisk not Samsung.
I have a T7 touch, a sandisk extreme portable and a sandisk portable. T7 is by far the best value, the Sandisks here in my country at least are quite expensive. The Sandisk portable (non extreme version) is terrible, extremely slow, fine for holding old photos/videos but not ideal for regular use if fast transfer speeds are needed, and if you try encrypt it it runs slower than a spinning hdd drive. Just mentioning it incase anyone is looking at the non extreme version.

[shshankking]

I bought wd p50 20gbps 8GB drive, opened it and removed its stock SN750 drive, chucked sn770 2TB. Boom, 2TB 20Gbps drive with turbo write at full speed at around 500GB+.
Then chucked the sn750 is a cheap orico enclosure..

[reidthered]

Good info 👍
What about an internal SSD within an enclosure?

[alex.delcastillo]

Great video. In the market to upgrade my storage to SSD and this was helpful. BTW, in your recommendations you called the Sandisk a Samsung Extreme Portable.

Keep making informative videos like this.

[BrutusMaximusAurelius]

Have the T7 with the finger print and it’s the best SSD I’ve ever had. Super fast and a very small form factor so it easily fiets I my bag.

[Sockumsofficial]

Using ssds on and iPad sends shivers down my spine 🥶🥶🥶

[ucheonobie]

I thought you were going to tell us which one is better for iPad and Mac separately🥹🥹🥹

[electone]

Others have said SanDisk and Samsung and maybe others get very hot & drain battery when used on iPad Pro, gave you experienced these sort of problems on these drives?

[josephinpdx]

I currently have a western digital external hard drive with a little over 2TB of music. It runs very slow with my MacBook Pro. I'm thinking it's because of the current drive I use. Would an SSD drive work faster and better specifically with Apple Music. FYI, I have no interest in streaming services and cloud services don't cut it for me. Thank you for any advice!

[GenuineArticle]

got the Samsung T5 EVO Portable SSD thinking it would work with my iPad pro. Sadly not working... only works with my PC even though formatted exFAT.

[Chimpur]

I run a VM off a 500gb Samsung T7.. about a year in and i've had zero problems!

[mejlgaardbliddal]

You are not getting 1000MB read or write on the T7 on a machine with a m1 inside more like + 500 in my testing. Still fast enough for my needs.

[erbartlett]

Do you have any tips for holding your iPad in your hands while using an SSD? With the cable sticking out of the side it’s really uncomfortable.

[deantethegiant]

can someone please help me? i've been on youtube for hours searching for an SSD that's strictly plug & play with no software or extra accounts needed to be made. i need one that is Mac compatible, reliable and can hold up to 2 TB at least.

[SharonThomas]

Need some help. I do photo editing and am about to upgrade from my old, old Mac Pro to the new Mac Studio M2 Max and need external drives (SSDs)...one for storing my photos and the other for backup. I would like two 8TB drives....what would you recommend? Thanks.