“Fast!” is first thing that comes to mind with the new OWC Envoy Pro Elektron Mini. Less than the footprint size of a credit card, the crushproof Elektron will fit in your hand and save a lot of time with real-time, transfer speeds of over 1GB/sec over a USB-C connection. It is bus-powered and comes with a USB-C cable with a cleverly attached USB-A adapter. I like the look of the aircraft-grade aluminum case with a drive status LED. In all-day long use, it barely gets warm.
I tested a 1TB OWC Envoy Pro Elektron during my typical archiving regime of copying Pro Tools sessions and also as a Carbon Copy Cloner drive. On my old 5,1 Mac Tower, I’m limited by slow USB-A speeds available but with a USB-C connection to a new 2019 Mac Pro Tower it was easy to get measurable write speeds of nearly 900 MB/seconds and read speeds just slightly slower at around 871MB/Sec.
I was able to copy a 8GB folder transferred from a new MacBook Pro in way under 10 seconds. Powered by OWC’s Aura SSD advanced NVMe technology, you can expect twice as fast performance compared to other portable SSDs. In addition, the Elektron is plug n’ play—totally compatible with Thunderbolt and USB Macs or PCs as well as iPad Pros and Chromebooks. Being able to put this much storage with super fast access in my pocket is a great way to start a session!
The OWC Envoy Pro Elektron Mini USB-C SSD comes in 240GB and 480GB, 1.0TB and 2.0TB sizes, has a three-year limited warranty with prices starting at $119 MSRP.
