Review: Kingston XS1000 portable SSD

We've long been fans of Kingston's portable external SSD drives here at AP.

The SSD's offer fast transfer speeds, compact size, and relatively affordable price points, which we think makes them a great option for photographers who want to back up on the go without paying an arm and a leg for the privilege. 

Last year we reviewed the XS2000, with the 1TB model retailing for about $299. 

But now there's an even cheaper option, the XS1000, which keeps a similar small size, and only makes relatively minor compromises on speed. And better yet, its pretty affordable, with the 2TB version, which we reviewed here, retailing for about $188, and the 1TB coming in at around $108. 

The 28.7 gram XS1000 is approximately 69mm long, 32mm wide, and 13mm thick and features a USB Type-C connector. Unlike the XS2000, there's no rubberised case, and Kingston also provide little to no information about the weatherproofing either.

That said, SSDs are pretty shock resistant in general, and it does come with a limited five year warranty. 

Kingston claims read/write speeds of approximately 1000MB per second with USB 3.2 Gen 2×1, which is pretty fast for most users who aren't transferring huge files such as 4K video.

And while it's worth mentioning the Kingston XS2000 has a superior USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 interface, most users likely won't notice the difference. 

In my testing with Black Magic Design's Disk Speed Test on my M1 2020 Macbook Pro I achieved read speeds of 852 MB/s and write speeds of 740 MB/s. These are a little off the claimed speeds, but this is probably not all that unusual. 

By comparison, the older XS2000 maxed out at around 850mb/s, so you're not sacrificing much in the speed department with the newer, cheaper drive. 

Further, like its bigger brother the XS1000 is also backwards compatible with the USB 3.2 Gen 1 and Gen 2 interfaces, as well as USB versions 3.1 and 3.0, and will automatically default to the highest speed your system allows. 

Regardless, I had no issues with transfer speeds, with the XS1000 taking care of a 9GB file in less than a minute when connected via USB-C. 

The wrap-up

There's a lot to like with the Kingston XS1000. It's cheap, fast, compact and delivers just about all most photographers would need in a portable SSD.

Those after larger capacities or faster transfer speeds for data-intensive formats like hi-res video should probably look elsewhere, but for general file storage, the XS1000 is a great choice. 

You can find out more at Kingston's website.