SANDISK G-DRIVE SSD: RUN COOL, RUN FAST, RUN RUGGED

EXTERNAL SOLID-STATE DRIVE

- JON L.JACOBI

The fast and light G-Drive SSD is as attractive and fast as its branding is arcane. It can be purchased from the WD (Western Digital) store under the SanDisk Professional brand, and is part of the G-Drive line. Some might remember that G-Drive was a boutique Mac storage vendor some time ago. WD bought G-Drive as well as SanDisk, which develops nearly all of the parent company’s solid state technology. Hence, it’s the SanDiskProfessional G-DriveSSD from WD.

Who cares, you say? Just filling you in. The drive is excellent, so let’s get on with it.

The SanDisk Professional G-Drive SSD’s end cap with its Type-C USB port. A Type-A adapter cable is included.

DESIGN

The G-Drive SSD is a USB 3.2 Gen 2(10Gbps), Type-C solid-state drive available in 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB flavors for $150,$250 ($230 on sale), and $360,respectively. That’s actually a tad less than competing drives from Seagate (fave.co/3Ei4TMP) and LaCie (fave.co/3ob7MJJ).The drive measures approximately 3.75inches long by 2 inches long, and is just over a half-inch thick.

The drive is predominantly dark gray with a louvered top and bottom to allow heat shedding from the internal metal structure. A silver end cap on the business end houses the single type-C USB port, and there's a small slit LEDactivity indicator on the other end of the drive.