INTRODUCTION

   Portable storage has come a long way since the early 2000's and so from 2GB USB 2.0 flash drives and 120GB USB 2.0 portable hard drives with speeds which rarely surpassed 40MB/s we now have USB 3.2 Gen 2 and Thunderbolt 3 portable SSDs with performance levels going all the way up to 1000MB/s (10Gbps) and 4000MB/s (40Gbps) respectively. Still there are two things aside performance which always mattered to me, size and durability. I am of course referring to the size and durability of the housings/enclosures used and as many of you are certainly aware rugged portable storage media are nowhere near as many in number as their regular non-rugged counterparts. Well, some manufacturers seem to be well aware of this and so today I'll be testing the brand new CarbonX USB 3.2 Gen 2 Portable External SSD by Mushkin.

   For over 25 years, Mushkin has been dedicated to helping Gamers, digital artists, IT managers and professionals alike enhance their computing experience by providing reliable, high-performance products. Mushkin’s products include a complete selection of USB, SSD and Memory Module upgrades for both the consumer and enterprise industries. Since the company’s founding in 1994, Mushkin has received numerous awards and commendations for quality, reliability and technical excellence.

   The CarbonX model by Mushkin is currently available in 250GB/50GB/1/2TB capacities and features a mid-sized enclosure made out of anodized aluminum (also helps with heat dissipation) which is surrounded by a removable rubber bumper. Needless to say, this enclosure is not only temperature-proof (from -40 and up to 85 degrees Celsius), vibration-proof and shock-proof (1500G max shock resistance) but it's also crush resistant. Under the hood of the CarbonX we find an M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD based on the Silicon Motion SM2263ENG NAND flash controller (configured as the SM2263XT model making it effectively also DRAMless), Micron 96-layer 3D QLC NAND flash and a host PCB with the ASMedia ASM2362 PCIe to USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface bridge chip. Typically for a USB-C drive the CarbonX is fully compatible with PCs, Macs, PS4s, XBOX Ones, iPad Pros, Chromebooks and select Android devices and is covered by a 3 year limited warranty.