LaCie P’9223 Slim SSD Review

LaCie and beautiful design intuitively go together, thanks to years of LaCie regularly pumping out great looking storage devices. The LaCie P’9223 Slim SSD drive is no different, sporting a classic aluminum body and support for USB 3.0. The appearance and build of the P’9223 rightfully deserves the Porsche label, as it has both the elegance and performance of the famous Porsche sports cars.

LaCie and beautiful design intuitively go together, thanks to years of LaCie regularly pumping out great looking storage devices. The LaCie P’9223 Slim SSD drive is no different, sporting a classic aluminum body and support for USB 3.0. The appearance and build of the P’9223 rightfully deserves the Porsche label, as it has both the elegance and performance of the famous Porsche sports cars.

The portable drive is supported by Windows XP, Vista, 7, or 8 and Mac OS 10.5 (Intel only), 10.6, 10.7, or 10.8. The LaCie P’9223 Slim drive is available in two capacities; 500GB hard drive and 120GB SSD, for personal storage needs. The 500GB drive has an MSRP of $99.99, while the 120GB SSD drive has a MSRP of $149.99. Our review model is the 120GB SSD version.

LaCie P’9223 Slim SSD Specification

Model:
500GB (9000304)
120GB (9000342)
Interface: USB 3.0 (USB 2.0 compatible)
Performance: Up to 400MB/s with SSD
Size (L x W x H): 5.0 inches x 3.1 inches x 0.4 inches 
Weight: 0.40 pounds 

Design and Build

LaCie first introduced the Porsche design in 2003 and continues on its tradition with the release of its P’9223 Slim drive. It utilizes a machine finished aluminum design that provides a sleek and elegant enclosure. The drive takes slim to the next level with the drive coming in at less than a 1/2 inch. In comparison, the P’9223 is thinner than Apple’s ultra-thin MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. LaCie also specifically designed the P’9223 to be a nice portable storage option for a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air.

The P’9223 utilizes a USB 3.0 interface and is powered through the USB port, so there is no need for an AC adapter. The drive features a thin status light which provides details on the activity of the drive; steady – on, flickering – in use, and off – drive is off. Utilizing Crystal Disk Info 5.2.0, we see the LaCie P’9223 Slim SSD is using a client version of the popular Crucial M4 128GB SSD with a model number of MTFDDAC128MAM. The drive features a SATA 6Gb/s interface with stated sequential read and write performance of 500MB/s and 175MB/s respectively.

User Interface

The P’9223 Slim requires the user to format the drive before use, for which LaCie has nicely included the LaCie Setup Assistant. Once in the drive is connected to a PC, the Setup Assistant pops up as an auto run program, at which point the user selects language preference and agrees to LaCie’s license agreement. Next, move to the Format tab, which you’ll see LaCie Share (Compatible) and LaCie Volume. You have the option to slide the arrow to either side to adjust the capacity of the drive over the two partitions. If you plan on using this device only on Windows based devices, it is recommended to move the arrow to the left to create a large volume for Windows. If you will be switching between Windows and Mac operating systems, it would be recommended to move the arrow to the right, creating a large volume to exchange date between the different operating systems. 

The LaCie Desktop Manager allows you to manage and configure all LaCie devices with one easy-to-use interface. Also, it provides Genie Timeline Free for Windows and Intego Backup Assistant for Mac, which are backup utilities that will automatically backup your files to the P-9223 Slim drive. Another option to back up data is the Wuala software. Wuala is LaCie’s secure cloud storage where users can store, access and share your files with friends, family, and co-workers from anywhere. 

Performance

Using our Consumer Testing Platform, we used IOMeter over USB 3.0 to run the P’9223 through its paces to see how the performance numbers stand up to the listed performance of up 400MB/s. The P’9223 saw sequential read and write performance of 276MB/s and 179MB/s. Its sequential read performance is below the estimate performance of a Crucial M4, though the sequential write is right on par with listed specifications. Looking at the random 4K read and write performance, we see the P’9223 offers 4,960 IOPS read and 11,938 IOPS write performance. Though these numbers may not live up to the performance numbers listed by LaCie for the drive, they are still impressive for an external device that uses USB 

Conclusion

LaCie is known for their outstanding build quality and industrial design, you will find more of the same with the P’9223 Slim SSD drive. With its machine finished aluminum design, the P’9223 has an elegant appearance that is worthy of having the Porsche name associated with it and is a perfect match in build quality and size to for Apple’s ultra-thin MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.

The P’9223 provides good performance numbers through USB 3.0 with its SSD. The down side of course is the lack of capacity, which LaCie addresses with a 500GB hard drive version to fill that gap.

Pros

Fantastic design & build
Mac and Windows OS support
Value-add software tools

Cons

USB 3.0 holds back SSD performance

Bottom Line

The LaCie P’9223 Slim SSD portable drive offers a sleek and elegant enclosure with good performance thanks to its SSD inside an a useful software package.

LaCie P’9223 Slim at Amazon.com

Discuss This Review