While there are a ton of options when it comes to portable storage, there are very few when it comes to portable NVMe. Plugable is offering a good compromise that allows users to take full advantage of NVMe SSD in a portable manner and allows users to choose their drive. The able USBC-NVME Enclosure is small and stylish fitting various M.2 form factors and leverages USB Type C interface.
Coming in a slim, black, aluminum case, the Plugable USBC-NVME Enclosure is toolless and only takes a few seconds to load a drive in. The enclosure supports M.2 lengths including 2280, 2260, 2242, and 2230. When leveraging a Thunderbolt 3 USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 connections users can expect speeds over 900MB/s (depending on the drive chosen).
The enclosure is available for about $50 at retail and the NVMe SSDs need to be purchased separately.
| Model | USBC-NVME |
| Connection | USB 3.1 Gen 2 up to 10Gb/s |
| SSD support | NVME M.2 (2280, 2260, 2240, & 2230) |
| OS Support | Windows, macO, Linux |
The Plugable USBC-NVME Enclosure fits in the palm of ones hand. It is a black, aluminum enclosure with a lock on one end to keep the cover on. The enclosure extruded fins for heat dissipation, which is the primary method for the NVMe drive installed to shed heat. They also include heat dissipation stickers to help with the heat transfer.
Installing an NVMe SSD into the enclosure is very simple and requires no tools. A rubber standoff is pre-installed at the 80mm length hole, allowing you to insert an SSD and lock it into position by bending it slightly back. This is a bit easier than the post and screw method most M.2 adapters use.
To test the performance of the Plugable USBC-NVME Enclosure we used the BlackMagic disk speed test on a current generation MacBook Air. Since the Plugable enclosure is kind of in a league of its own for the moment, we looked at the performance of the enclosure alone with a 512GB Samsung 970 Pro inside.
With BlackMagic we saw 923.6MB/s read and 910.9MB/s write. Super fast for a portable solution and above the 900MB/s quoted.
The Plugable USBC-NVME Enclosure is a enclosure that houses M.2 NVMe drives and fits in the palm of ones hand. The enclosure allows users to choose M.2 NVMe drives, and easily install them for fast transfer speed of files. The company states that users can see over 900MB/s in performance and it fits M.2 form factors including 2280, 2260, 2240, and 2230.
For our testing we inserted a 512GB Samsung 970 Pro and tested the enclosure with BlackMagic on a current generation MacBook Air. The results were an impressive 923.6MB/s read and 910.9MB/s write.
For users that want super fast speeds and have an M.2 NVMe drive to use, the Plugable USBC-NVME Enclosure is an ideal portable choice.
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