Plextor EX1 Plus portable 512GB SSD evaluating

In the past, when the SSD capacity was small and the main storage carrier was still HDD, people felt that it was not so much to use U disk to move data. However, with the price reduction of large-capacity SSDs, especially after the popularity of M.2 SSDs, the transmission speed of U disk was slowly unacceptable. Especially in the era of high-speed data expansion, mobile SSD with higher capacity and better performance do provide a better user experience. Plextor, a well-known SSD manufacturer, currently sells only EX1, a portable mobile SSD that was released early last year. It is time to upgrade, so the EX1 Plus is coming now.

Packaging of Plextor EX1 Plus portable mobile hard disk The relationship between Plextor EX1 Plus and EX1 is similar to that between M8V and M7V. Actually, EX1 Plus is changing the flash memory from the original Toshiba 15nm TLC to Toshiba BiCS 3 64-layer stacked 3D TLC, completing the transition from 2D to 3D. Like the previous generation of products, the EX1 Plus has three capacities of 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB. The continuous reading speed is 550MB/s. In terms of writing speed, 128GB is 410MB/s, 256GB is 500MB/s, and 512GB is 510MB. /s. Now, we have the largest capacity of 512GB on hand. Like other products of Plextor, various parameters are printed on the back of the box. Take everything out of the box. The accessories include a USB Type-C to Type-A cable, a flannel bag, a instruction, a product enablement serial number of the Plextor Secure Drive EX2 encryption software and a card for software usage. The flannel bag is large enough to fit into the EX1 Plus and the data cable so that the SSD can also avoid being scratched in the bag. The Plextor EX1 Plus portable SSD is made of an aluminum alloy case with a matte finish. The colors are rose gold or deep gray. There is a relatively clean front with the Plextor logo and two sides with white plastic. The model number and some information are printed on the back This is made in Taiwan, whose working voltage is DC 5V. The SSD interface is a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C, so it is no need to distinguish between the positive and negative sides of the interface. There is a blue status indicator on both sides of the interface. When powered, it will light up to indicate the read and write status of the mobile hard disk. Model, date of manufacture and S/N code are printed on the bottom The length of USB cable for distribution is just right. Plextor EX1 Plus is available on Windows, Mac, Linux and Android devices The color scheme of Plextor EX1 Plus and EX1 series is very similar to that of platform equipment. The gray EX1 Plus is almost the same colors as the Macbook. Two blue indicators light up after connection Performance Testing The performance of Plextor EX1 Plus was tested in the Gigabyte Z370 AROUS GAMING 3 motherboard, Core i7-8700K processor, the USB 3.1 Type-A interface provided by ASMedia 3142, and the Windows 10 Build 1802 system. The Plextor EX1 Plus is actually an M.2 version of the M8V plus adapter chip. The actual performance is probably the same as SATA SSD so that the performance isn’t superior to 10Gbps bandwidth limit of the USB 3.1 Gen 2. Of course, if you use USB 3.1 Gen 1, 5Gbps bandwidth will definitely be limited because the actual transmission speed of the interface is generally 450MB / s. The Plextor EX1 Plus, whose continuous reading and writing speed reaches 561 / 509 MB / s by CDM software test and 4K random reading and writing speed is also 29/55 MB/s ,is a mobile SSD with good performance. Continuous reading and writing speed measured by ASSSD is 490/490mb/s, and 4K random reading and writing speed is 31/51mb/s. The ISO replication speed is 378MB/s in ASSSD replication testing, with coping programs speed 210MB/s and the copying game speed 181MB/s. This is a file-copying test using FastCopy. The left print is read from the mobile hard disk, and the right is written. The main hard disk is Plextor M9PeY. There is also no bottleneck problem. The game folder of "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds", with a total size of 17.3GB, contains 473 files. It is read at 450MB/s and written at 303MB/s, taking 39 seconds and 58 seconds respectively. Summary The change of NAND flash memory from 2D to 3D is almost an irreversible trend. Furthermore, the Plextor EX1 Plus is a product that conforms to this trend. In fact, it is no obvious difference from EX1 because it basically inherits the advantages with better performance. In addition to a convenient USB Type-C interface, the Plextor EX1 Plus also supports AES256 encryption to safely save the private files in it. After sale, it can also enjoy Plextor SSD’s house repairing service. You can log in Plextor’s official website to apply for RMA service and wait for Shunfeng to send the repairs on its behalf. Plextor will replace the chips in one year if there is a problem, and replace the good ones one year later. The price of Plextor EX1 Plus 128/256/512G is $75/120/168, respectively. In fact, the price is not expensive, but the customer can enjoy 5-years warranty.