Buffalo MicroStation 32GB external SSD

The USB Flash drive evolves into an HDD killer

These utilities are all well and good - I'll come back to Turbo USB - but nothing more than you get from many an external storage supplier, so that leaves performance as really the only area on which the MicroStation can stand out.

The bundled apps are decent

And stand out it does, beating the all of the above in the CrystalDiskMark 2.2 benchmark. Its lead isn't great, it has to be said, and it's not the fastest in every test, but taken as a whole, it's impressively quick.

It's beaten by a comparably sized - physically, at any rate - hard drive only in random write performance, but while that might be an issue for your primary drive, it's much less so for external storage.

Turbo USB increases the MicroStation's read speed, by up to 12 per cent, but it does nothing to enhance random write performance. You'd see the same with other vendors' products if they supplied the software, of course, but since many don't, Buffalo gets a nod for doing so.

Verdict

Yes, Buffalo's MicroStation is a glorified USB Flash drive, but it's an impressive one, at least by USB 2.0 standards. USB 3.0 is rare and eSata not relevant to portable, bus-powered drives, so this is the best you're going to get right now. Yes, an similarly priced pocket external HDD will give you oodles more storage space, but it won't be faster or as resilient to life on the road. ®

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