Crucial X10: A killer portable SSD that's tiny, fast, and weatherproof

We love this tiny, weatherproofed drive's overall performance and that it can fit 8TB of storage in such a small form factor.

- BY JON JACOBI

Crucial's X10 Pro (fave. co/48mS7fC) was one of the most impressively small and fast USB SSDs I've tested. The new X10 that I review here is cheaper, almost as fast, and available at up to twice the Pro's 4TB maximum capacity. Yup, 8TB in the same tiny form factor. Color me doubly impressed. Read on to learn more, and then see our roundup of the best external drives (fave. co/3n5NIMC) for comparison.

FEATURES

The Crucial X10 is a bluish gray USB 3.2×2, 20Gbps SSD that easily fits into the palm of your hand. Indeed, it measures a mere 2.5 inches long, 2 inches wide and half-inch thick. There's a lanyard hole on one end, and a Type-C connector on the other.

The 2TB version of the X10 that Crucial sent me weighs only 1.4 ounces, and I wouldn't expect the higher capacities to weigh much more. NAND isn't that heavy.

The feather-light feel belies the drive's IP65 rating. That rating means the X10 is dust-proof and can stand up to a little bit of rain or sprinkler spray. If you are not familiar with the ingress protection rating system, you can read up on it here (fave. co/4kvf8Sg).

Crucial wasn't forthcoming about the controller inside. However, from the performance when the drive runs out of secondary cache, it's obvious that the NAND is QLC. Given that it's available in capacities up to 8TB, it's also obvious that it's layered, stacked, and 3-D NAND.