Western Digital WD_BLACK P50 Game Drive SSD, 2TB, USB-C 3.2

The WD_BLACK P50 4TB Game Drive is the fastest portable SSD that we have ever tested. It won every single benchmark performance test that we ran! That is pretty impressive as it out performed over 20 well known drives with relative ease. This drive is rated at 2 GB/s read and write and we managed to get over 2 GB/s read and write on a USB 3.2 2×2 (20Gbps) port on our test platform. But, the real story here isn’t all about speed. Western Digital has doubled the capacity of all of their portable SSDs from 2TB to 4TB without sacrificing performance. That is the big take home message! The WD_BLACK P50 delivers all the capacity you crave with industry leading performance! Introducing 4TB portable SSDs will solve some problems for people out in the market that needed more than 2TB of storage space. It will be a savior for those that really needed a larger capacity as they can possibly use just one drive now instead of two or more. All WD_BLACK P50 Game Drives are backed by a 5-year warranty, but lets hope that is never needed. When will we see 8TB portable SSDs? We asked Western Digital that question just last week and they declined to comment on the record about when that will happen. They did point out that they showed off 8TB M.2 NVMe drives at CES 2020 last year and that the technology is ready for when the market is ready for such a product. So, for the foreseeable future it looks like 4TB will be the largest capacity that you’ll be able to purchase. 4TB WD_Black P50 Game Drive SSDs are expected to be available later this month at select retailers and the Western Digital Store at an estimated U.S. MSRP of $749.99. The WD_BLACK P50 Game Drive easily gets our Editors’ Choice award for those that have a need for a big and fast portable storage drive!

As a media professional, I am not alone in the mindset that I want a sufficient backup device with me at all times for my work, regardless of where I am or what I am doing. Too many have fallen prey to something happening to their all important work or personal media, with no backup or way to recover. Western Digital’s upgrading My Passport SSD, SanDisk Extreme Portable and Pro, as well as the WD_Black P50 to 4TB capacity is a great thing. Much has to be also said for the fact that Western Digital is all alone in providing portable SSDs that will move USB 3.2 Gen 2 data at 1GB/s (My Passport SSD/ Extreme Portable) or 2GB/s (Extreme Portable Pro/WD_Black P50) and the fact that all come with a 5-year limited warranty. Nevertheless, this still leaves me wondering about the lack of success with Thunderbolt 3 for the most part. Is it just too expensive to buy at the consumer level or does it have to do with licensing difficulties at the manufacturers level? In any case, Western Digital is doing a great job picking up those pieces to ensure USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 (20Gbps) gets all the recognition it deserves.