Kingston XS1000 external SSD review
External storage has come a long way since the launch of DVHARDWARE. Taking a backup used to be a slow and cumbersome process. I remember taking backups using floppy disks and using rewritable CDs around the turn of the century -- unbelievable what a cumbersome process that was! After that, USB storage became mainstream but for a long time flash storage with sufficient capacity was not only prohibitively expensive but also slow due to the limitations of previous USB protocols.In more recent history, that has completely changed. Unless your backup needs are huge, you can now buy a decent amount of external storage capacity with excellent transfer speeds. An example of this is the Kingston XS1000 external solid state drive, which is the subject of this review. For reference, this device ships in 1TB and 2TB capacities for $74.99 and $119.99, respectively.
Unboxing and first impressions
The XS1000 series ships in a compact cardboard box. The device I'm testing today has a capacity of 2TB and it's the black model. Kingston also offers a red edition -- which has exactly the same specifications. Inside the box, we find the solid state disk as well as a 12" long USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable. The device itself is easily mistaken for a USB flash drive, it's about the same length as an average USB flash drive but it's wider. Perhaps the biggest difference versus a thumb drive is that the XS1000 requires the use of a detachable cable.
The enclosure uses a mix of metal and plastic and feels sturdy. It measures 69.54mm x 32.58mm x 13.5mm and weighs a mere 28.7g. Kingston offers a limited five-year warranty with free technical support. Inside the drive is unspecified 3D NAND flash memory and controller, which could vary from batch to batch. The disk uses the USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface and promises read speeds of up to 1050MB/s and write speeds of up to 1000MB/s. The XS1000 is a cut-down version of the more expensive Kingston's XS2000 -- that disk uses the USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 interface and promises up to double the performance of the XS1000.
The USB Type-C port is located on the right side of the disk. Next to it is a small LED light indicator.
As mentioned before, Kingston includes a USB-C to USB-A cable with the XS1000. With portable storage as fast as the XS1000, the type of cable you use can limit the maximum performance you'll get. Some cables support just 480Mbps, others will deliver up to 5Gbps, 10Gbps, or 20Gbps. As such, it's a bummer Kingston omits the inclusion of a proper USB-C to USB-C cable because customers who use the wrong cable will suffer from poor performance.
Testing
Upon connecting the disk to a PC we see it's formatted with the exFAT file format. It has a free capacity of over two trillion bytes, which works out to 1.81TB. It's the good old discrepancy between the decimal system, which is used by storage makers to determine storage capacity, and the binary system, which is used by your operating system.
To verify the performance of the XS1000 I used CrystalDiskMark and AS SSD Benchmark. In CrystalDiskMark, we see the XS100 achieves sequential read speeds of up to 1045MB/s and sequential write speeds of 952MB/s. This metric is important when you backup large files, like videos or massive archives. Random read/write performance is quite decent too.
Performance measured by AS SSD Benchmark is somewhat lower but still within norms.
For a final test, I copied 20GB of large files to the disk to measure the write speed. This averaged out to 585MB/s. Whether you want to transfer some large files to another device or make a complete backup of your computer, the XS1000 is up to the task.
Conclusion
Kingston's XS1000 is an affordable, no-frills external solid state disk that easily doubles as a thumb drive in case you need to transfer very large files between two devices. Its USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface delivers speedy backup performance that closely matches the product's specification sheet and Kingston put in some effort to make this a pocketable drive. As far as external SSDs go, I can highly recommend the XS1000 for its decent price/performance ratio. About the only drawback worth mentioning is the lack of a USB Type-C to USB Type-C cable.The Good Stuff:
- Very compact
- Sturdy design
- Includes USB Type-C to USB Type-A cable
- Good price/performance
The Not-So-Good Stuff:
- Does not include USB Type-C to USB Type-C cable.
DVHARDWARE awards the Kingston XS1000 with a solid 8.5/10 and our Seal of Approval award.
Added: August 11th 2024
Product reviewed: Kingston XS1000 external SSD
Reviewer: Thomas De Maesschalck
Score: 8.5/10
