Micron announces entry into portable SSD market with Crucial X8

Portable SSDs have been a thing for a while now with newer NVMe drives taking flight with the introduction of Thunderbolt 3. However, Crucial is putting the power of USB 3.2 Gen 2 to work on the new X8.

As shown, the drive is a smaller unit, likely housing an M.2 2280 drive internally. The exciting part is that this unit uses USB protocol, which opens up the compatibility to several devices and even game consoles. The stated speed is up to 1050 MB/s sequential and requires a USB 3.2 Gen 2 port. A standard USB 3.2 Gen 1 (USB 3.0) port will allow for half that speed or a 5Gb/s interface.

The Crucial X8 is tested with drops of up to 7.5' which means it should be able to handle being tossed in book bags or laptop bags without much worry. It comes with a Type-C cable and a Type-A cable to maximize compatibility for the X8 and ensure it should fit most anything you would want to use it on. The listed compatible devices are as follows:

• Windows 10, 8.1
• MacOS
• PS4 & PS4 Pro
• XBOX One & XBOX One X
• iPad Pro (2018 USB-C model)
• Android

Do keep in mind that Android devices require a Type-C cable or appropriate OTG adapter to connect to the X8, and also require support for OTG storage.