CalDigit Tuff Nano Plus 2TB Rugged IP67 USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 External NVME SSD - 10Gb/s, Thunderbolt 4 Compatible for Mac & PC, 1055MB/s Speed - Perfect for Travel, Photography & Video Editing (Charcoal Black)

This is a review of the Caldigit Tuff Nanowith a brand new 16" Macbook Pro with a thunderbolt 3 40Gbps 100 watt 17 inch OWC cable plugged directly into the T3 port on the MBP it tests at 700MB/s write and 904 MB/s read using the blackmagic design disk speed test. So beware any time you see a speed that says "up to". Still it's fast for the money, and small, and I'll probably buy another for field work. Small is good with the size of my kit, small and faster is a win win. Go out and buy it. Works right out of the box with Mac. Mac OS Extended (Journaled). The second photo is up against a SSD enclosure so you can see how small it is. You can buy the 2400MB/sec-2800MB/s 4x NVMe RAID 0 array drives out there but they will be much bigger. OK, I just switched the T3 cable to the one that came in the box with the drive and the speeds are a little faster, 776MB/s and 908MB/s. Interesting. Use the cable in the box, too many inferior T3 cables out there.Update: I can confirm this does work with the 2020 iPad Pro 11 inch. I tried the Sabrent NvME but the ipad would not recognize it, iPad does not support thunderbolt 3. So far the tough nano is the fastest small portable drive that works with the iPad. I don't even need a hub because I plug in an SD card reader, the SanDisk UHS-II and I can capture a 2 GB video file (300MB/s sandisk card) in 7 seconds. BTW, the SanDisk SD to USB-C card reader is the fastest out there in my tests So get it. I don't see any need for a Gnarbox box anymore. I capture from the SD card onto my iPad Pro because I have a 1 TB of storage. I can dump from the iPad back to the Caldigit tuff nano if I need to. But that process is slow, if you wanna dump 230 GB from the iPad to the Caldigit tuff nano it will take about three hours. Not sure why the process is so slow going out from the iPad. But I still have the originals on the cards and a copy on my iPad, that's good enough for me. I'm liking this tuff nano more and more especially as the prices drop.Bought the 1TB Tuffnano with the olive green protective case (being the former military guy that I am) for work. Liked it enough that I also bought a (really bright) tomato red 1TB model also.The case is aluminum. The whole thing comes in a plastic carrying case with a USB C cable.Currently the drives that are in the 1TB model is an industry standard 2230 M2 NvME - specifically a a Toshiba/Kioxia, so you're getting basically what would also be used in some small computers and some notebooks.From experience I can tell you NvME storage runs on the warm side. This case is engineered well enough that it doesn't run too hot- I saw about 51-52C when doing a 400GB upload. By comparison my HP Z book that was doing the transfer to it had a drive temperature of 64C (a Samsung Pro 970 NvME M2) .I think there's only one 1TB external data drive that's smaller than this- the ADATA- and it costs less, too. The ADATA has a Micron 1TB, however I'm not sure if there is an industry standard form factor SSD in it. Personally I prefer the look of the Tuffnano. I know what Im getting with industry standard SSD's from a reputable manufacturer by buying this- most importantly proven reliability. If it dies I suppose it isn't a total loss- the drive may still be ok, or the case and the USB/M2 controller might be used with another 2230 NvMe.I really can't think of any cons- even from price, as a bare Kioxia 1TB currently costs more to buy than this thing costs- and you also get an enclosure to boot.If you have a Mac you are good to go, since it is formatted for Mac from the vendor. If you have a PC, it's not that easy. A PC won't even recognize it as a drive until you delete the Mac information. You have to find it as an administrator and figure out what to delete, since what comes up on the screen doesn't match what it says in the directions. Once the Mac info is deleted, you can then format to your PC. If I figured it out, I'm sure most folks will. It just seems like a lot of fuss, when it could have come 'blank' - ready to format for either application.For the last 5 months, I've been using my Tuff-Nano (1TB) as a secondary storage device with my Mac Mini 2018. That is, until yesterday. Out of nowhere, I get a system notification titled "USB Accessories Disabled" with the warning message "Unplug the accessory using too much power to re-enable USB devices" (screengrab attached). Then I realize my Tuff-Nano is no longer showing up in Finder or Disk Utility. I tried unplugging and replugging it in; tried a different Mac device; tried a different USB-C cable; tried all the USB-C ports I could find. No luck.I contacted CalDigit support. After telling the agent about the issue, they said "I'm afraid our only remaining recourse in this situation may be to replace the Tuff under warranty". Naturally, I followed up by asking about data recovery - were they saying the drive failed and my data was gone? did they have any knowledge and advice to share on data recovery? To these kinds of questions I basically got the response: we don't do data recovery; you're welcome to try but you're on your own.To be clear, I didn't expect CalDigit to provide data recovery services, but I didn't expect to be left completely in the dark regarding whether and what I should be doing about my personal data. Sure, I appreciate that they'll send me a replacement drive. But, honestly not even sure about getting a replacement. In order to get the replacement I have to send back this broken drive with a bunch of my irreplaceable data on it. And honestly given that support didn't have any information for me about what caused this issue, I really don't see how I can trust that this won't happen again in another 6 months or so. Ugh.So, not a great consumer experience. Will update review if I am able to learn more about the situation.