With the cost of solid state storage rapidly decreasing, we have seen an increasing amount of portable solid state solution begin to enter the market. OWC is no stranger to the SSD market with product like the Mercury and Aura Pro solutions.
The Envoy Pro EX is the latest portable solution from OWC featuring 240GB or 480GB of capacity and USB 3.0 connectivity. To set this solution apart from others, you will find the Envoy Pro EX encased in a full aluminium enclosure that's both slim and sleek in appearance. Marketing specifications for the drive show it carrying 430 MB/s read and 320MB/s write capability. Compatibility of the device extends to modern Windows operating systems along with OS X and Linux.
MSRP of the OWC Envoy Pro EX in the 240GB capacity is listed at $249.99 with a three-year warranty.
Scope of delivery for the Envoy Pro EX included a carrying bag, USB 3.0 cable, and reading materials.
The front edge of the device houses a thin LED for activity.
Here we have the back edge of the Envoy housing the USB 3.0 connection.
The bottom of the Envoy houses the OWC serial number, along with a few other details.
Internally, the Envoy uses an Aura Pro SSD powered by the SF2281 controller.
Before you can use the OWC Envoy Pro EX, you must first run through a setup wizard.
The second screen of the wizard allows you to make sure the correct drive was detected.
Next up you have a few options to partition the Envoy. You can go with easy setup or custom.
Above, we have our one and only benchmark run from within OS X 10.9.4. As you can see, we were able to reach 420 MB/s read and 304 MB/s write.
Next, we switched to Windows, and put the Envoy Pro through IOMeter. Here we found the drive to reach 431 MB/s read putting it right behind the Angelbird Pro solution.
Write performance came in at 320.9 MB/s, putting the Envoy Pro behind both the Angelbird and MyDigitalSSD portable solutions.
In our price/performance chart, the Envoy Pro EX did quite well. With its MSRP, hovering just over a dollar per GB, coupled with excellent performance characteristics, the drive was able to land in second at 89%.
For those of you in the market for a portable SSD solution, the Envoy Pro EX certainly fits the bill. The build quality is quite superb, and for those that enjoy the use of a MacBook Pro, the aesthetic matches perfectly. In fact, the Envoy Pro EX when paired with a MBP integrates so seamlessly, that it appears visually that the device was almost made by Apple themselves.
Performance was quite good in read operations. In both OS X and Windows, we topped 400 MB/s, while write speeds were slower than we would like for a solid state solution, they were ample for daily use. In our price/performance charts, the Envoy Pro EX was able to take second only to the MyDigitalSSD BP4 solution thanks to its excellent MSRP and associated performance.
PRICING: You can find the OWC Envoy Pro EX 240GB Portable SSD for sale below. The prices listed are valid at the time of writing but can change at any time. Click the link to see the very latest pricing for the best deal.
United States: The OWC Envoy Pro EX 240GB Portable SSD retails for $249.00 at Amazon.
Canada: The OWC Envoy Pro EX 240GB Portable SSD retails for CDN$351.08 at Amazon Canada.