Transcend ESD250C SSD Review: Maximum Speed, Design, and Potability

The possibility of adding external storage to our iPad since Apple launched the iPad Pro with USB-C does not open a world of new possibilities. We reviewed the Transcend ESD250C SSD, which by size, speed and price make it one of the best options to expand the storage of the iPad Pro or MacBook.

Outstanding design and specifications

Gone are those heavy, noisy hard drives that needed a power supply to work. The size of the disks has been reduced considerably since the arrival of SSDs, also improving the speed of data transfer. This Transcend SSD is a prime example of this, with a very careful design thanks to its aluminum outer casing in space gray finish and a size (120mmx33mmx7mm) and weight (47 grams) that make it perfect to carry it in our bag or backpack, even in our pocket.

SSD storage is of type 3D NAND flash, with a capacity of 960 GB and USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 interface which enables data transfer speeds of up to 520 MB / s. The disk is formatted in exFAT, perfect format for use in macOS, iPadOS and Windows 10. Transcend has the great detail of including two cables in the box: USB-C to USB-C 3.1 Gen 2; USB-A to USB-C 3.1 Gen 1. We can therefore use it with USB-C devices such as the iPad Pro or any of the new MacBook Pro, Air, iMac and Mac Mini, but also with other computers with older connectors.

Connect and work

As I said before the album is coming formatted in exFAT, so iPad and Mac users will not have the slightest problem to use it, and it will also be compatible with the most modern Windows computers. We will simply have to connect it to our device, and we can directly view the content or transfer it from Finder (macOS) or the Files application (iPadOS).

The data transfer speed is surprising, allowing you to pass heavy files such as 4K videos in a few seconds. Of course we can view movies in this format without any problem, or use the disk to store the videos that we record with our camera and then edit them from our iPad Pro or MacBook. Having 960 GB of storage in such a small device is a real luxury and it raises the question that it is no longer necessary to buy devices with large storage capacities, especially considering the price at which Apple charges storage.

Transcend offers us your Transcend Elite application to use together with your SSD disk that allows us to perform tasks such as backup, restore, data encryption, cloud backup, etc. The software is free, we can download it from the Transcend website (link) for both Windows and macOS, and is also available for Android on Google Play (link). Hopefully Transcend will soon have the iPad Pro app available as well.

Editor's opinion

With the prices that are asked to expand the storage capacity of our MacBook and iPad Pro, we must think very well what capacity we really need in our day to day. On many occasions, having external storage that you can use when you really need it is the best option, and this Transcend ESD250C is the perfect example of this. Speed, portability and good design in a 960 GB disk whose price on Amazon is € 170, much less than what Apple asks us to expand the capacity of the iPad Pro up to 1TB (+ € 550) or the MacBook Air up to 1TB (+ € 500). You can buy it on Amazon with free shipping for € 170 (link).