INTRODUCTION

   From the very first USB (Universal Serial Bus) standards (1.0/1.1) with speeds not even surpassing 13-14MB/s to USB 2.0 with speeds rarely ever going over 40-45MB/s, USB 3.0/3.1/3.2 Gen 1 stretching all the way to 500MB/s and 3.1/3.2 Gen 2 which can even reach 1000MB/s, extremal portable drives have certainly come a long way over the past 3 decades. USB 4.0 is now upon us and even though it has a theoretical maximum speed of 4000MB/s (Gen 3x2 - just like Thunderbolt 4 since they are almost identical) it seems that the market is not quite ready for it. As a matter of fact, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (2000MB/s max) seems to be the "hottest" standard right now and since Kingston recently released their XS2000 line of portable SSDs i decided to take a look for myself and see what you can really expect from these blazing fast drives.

   Kingston Technology Company, Inc. is the world’s largest independent manufacturer of memory products. Kingston designs, manufactures and distributes memory products for desktops, laptops, servers, printers, and Flash memory products for PDAs, mobile phones, digital cameras, and MP3 players. Through its global network of subsidiaries and affiliates, Kingston has manufacturing facilities in California, Taiwan, China and sales representatives in the United States, Europe, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Australia, India, Taiwan, China, and Latin America. For more information, please call +44 (0)1932 738888 or visit www.kingston.com

   The XS2000 by Kingston is a tiny Portable SSD made out of plastic, rubber and metal (shockproof and water and dust resistant) currently available in 500GB/1TB/2TB capacities. Although tiny this particular portable SSD is not only the fastest currently in the entire Kingston lineup but it's also amongst the fastest ones in the market right now thanks to the USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 standard which allows it to reach read & write speeds (sequential) of up to 2000MB/s. To achieve this Kingston used the latest quad-channel (32 CEs) SM2320 NAND flash controller by Silicon Motion which packs their NANDXtend ECC end-to-end data path protection but even though it also supports AES 256-bit encryption for full compliance with the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) Opal specification the XS2000 doesn't have that specific feature. Now since this is the very first controller of its kind i do expect improvements later on (both hardware and firmware) but for now let's see what the latest XS2000 1TB Portable SSD by Kingston is all about.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

A large product picture can be seen at the front of the box right next to the company logo, capacity and speeds.

The product bundle is listed at the rear in 3 languages and just over an opening of the box through which you can check the sticker located at the base of the drive.

A rubber sleeve and an USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 type-C cable are bundled with the XS2000.

THE XS2000 1TB

Measuring just 69.54mm in length, 32.58mm in width and 13.5mm in height the XS2000 is a very compact drive.

The rubber sleeve is something that everyone should be using since it protects the enclosure.

On the right end of the drive, we find the USB type-C port and the blue activity LED.

Turning the drive over we see the sticker which is visible from the rear of the box.

Here you can see just how compact the Kingston XS2000 portable SSD is (i placed it right next to the Samsung T1 and T3, Sabrent Rocket Pro, Mushkin CarbonX and ADATA SE760 portable SSDs).

Opening the enclosure is not hard and inside we find the SM2320 NAND flash controller by Silicon Motion along with 4 NAND flash modules by Kingston (256GB each, 2 on each side of the PCB).

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

    Solid state drives are basically the same as USB flash drives and so we’re using almost the same testing methodology to successfully record achieved read & write performance numbers in our charts*. The benchmark suites used are HD Tach RW (Read Speeds / Long Bench 32mb Zone Testing), HD Tune Pro (Read / Write speeds), Sisoftware Sandra Titanium 2020 (Read / Write speeds), AIDA64 Engineer Edition (Average Linear / Random Read & Write speeds), Crystal Disk Mark 6.0.2 (2GB Read / Write speeds) and finally ATTO 4.00.0F2 (Max Read / Max Write speeds). Every test is repeated a total of 6 times after which the average performance numbers are recorded into our charts (0 = we were unable to complete that test).

    All tests are performed with our main rig running Microsoft Windows 10 Pro installation on a CORSAIR MP510 960GB NVME SSD* with all updates installed up to the day we started tests.

* Since August 2019 for portable SSD tests I started using the X299 test rig.
** For USB 3.2 Gen2x2 portable SSDs I’ll be using the Z590 DARK based test rig.

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA TITANIUM / CRYSTAL DISK MARK

CONCLUSION

   As with most devices that can be effectively benchmarked it’s clear that the XS2000 1TB portable SSD by Kingston is the fastest model to arrive in the lab, to date that is. Yes, performance is not as strong in random reads and writes as it is in sequential but the latter is the “dominant” scenario today so that’s not a bad thing (besides most if not all portable SSDs don’t do well with random data). Size is also a factor when out to get a portable drive and even though at 13.5mm the XS2000 is not the thinnest one around, overall, it’s a tiny drive. My sole “issue” with all USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 drives is compatibility/support and since this is something only the latest Intel Z590/Z690 and AMD X570 motherboards have i just don’t see a large target audience (this of course applies with many hardware components and peripherals from time to time).

   At USD159.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and at 148.56Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) the XS2000 1TB portable SSD by Kingston is priced quite right, always for what you’re getting in return. So, if you already own a compatible motherboard or you plan on getting one soon the XS2000 will certainly not disappoint and although not quite perfect since it’s clearly the fastest drive to ever arrive in the lab it deserves the Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Near Excellent Performance (USB 3.2 Gen 2x2)
- Shockproof, Dust & Water Resistant
- 5 Year Limited Warranty
- Compact Size

CONS

- Motherboard Compatibility (USB 3.2 Gen 2x2)