Crucial X6 USB SSD: Good price, good performance, good design

This USB SSD operates at SATA speeds and delivers a vast amount of storage in an affordable, compact, and comfortable design.

- JON L. JACOBI

Crucial’s X6 is square to be hip—or placed in your hip pocket, at any rate. In a sea of portable SSDs whose shape makes them a literal pain when pocketed, the thin, rounded-edge X6 is a sigh of relief. It’s not state-of-the-art fast, but it’s fast enough for most users and extremely affordable.

DESIGN AND FEATURES

The X6 is squarish, approximately 2.4 inches tall by 2.6 inches wide. It’s extremely thin for the breed at about 0.35 inches, and the aforementioned rounded edges and corners snag on nothing. I just pulled it from my back pocket, where it had been for over a day. Yup—it’s so comfortable to carry that I forgot it was there.

The drive is rendered in shades of dark gray and black, which are too subtle—it’s hard to spot on the desk or in a bag mixed with other stuff. A spot of color would be nice. When I’m complaining about stuff like that, it’s a sign that the product overall is an excellent one.

A USB Type-C port on the right edge provides connectivity. Crucial thoughtfully includes both a Type-C-to-Type-C cable and a Type-C-to-Type-A adapter.

Micron wasn’t particularly forthcoming about the internals, but from the performance I can tell you that they are SATA. We tested the 10Gbps X6 on a 20Gbps USB port capable of 2GBps, and saw around 550MBps. That’s SATA. Judging from the 450GB write results, the NAND is QLC (Quad-Level Cell/4-bit/16 state).

The X6 is available in four capacities: 500GB (currently about $70 on Amazon [go. pcworld.com/70am