Addonics Pocket UDD25 USB 3.0 External Dock Review

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Addonics has always been one of those vendors that produce customized solutions to fit the needs of their customers. Over the years, we have seen multiple bay solutions with a number of connectivity options, to single bay solutions with unique features such as write protect mode with devices, such as the recently reviewed Sapphire Write Protect.

The product we are looking at today follows those same guidelines being a custom solution with many options for connectivity. The Pocket UDD25 was announced just before many of us here at TweakTown packed up and hit the skies for CES 2015.

Like I mentioned previously, the UDD25 has immense capabilities as a desktop storage solution with compatibility with all 2.5" storage devices such as SSDs and HDDs, additionally utilizing Addonics adapters that we had the chance to use in our Sapphire Write Protect review mentioned above, this solution can take on SATA m.2, Compact Flash, CFast and even mSATA solutions. Operating system compatibility for this solution includes Windows XP, 7 and 8 in addition to all server variants of Windows; on the Unix side we have compatibility with Mac OS 9+ and Linux Kernel 2.4+.

MSRP of the Addonics Pocket UDD25 is listed at $44.99 with a one-year warranty.

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Scope of delivery for the Addonics Pocket UDD25 includes both USB 3.0 and eSATA cables, allowing you multiple connectivity options out of the box.

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The Pocket UDD25 is a rather sleek looking storage solution. Along with the great aesthetic appeal that the unit carries, the Addonics UDD25 houses a 2.5" bay on the front fit for SSD, HDD and the aforementioned adapters.

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The back of the Pocket houses the connectivity side of things, with USB 3.0 via a standard port and eSATA to it right. While this solution is bus powered when using it via USB 3.0, Addonics has added the option for this to be powered via an adapter as you can see to the far left.

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The bottom of the unit carries identification for the Pocket UDD25, along with slots on either side for internal cooling.

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Testing the Addonics, we installed a Crucial M550 1TB SSD in the unit. In our first benchmark, we used ATTO Disk Benchmark, as it's widely used for marketing performance. Looking down through the results, we found the UDD25 to excel with write operations, while read followed behind - at its peak, the UDD25 produced 224 MB/s read and 373 MB/s write.

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Next up, we loaded up CrystalDiskMark and gave the Pocket a go, again with the same 1TB M550 SSD from Crucial. Sequential read and write were quite similar to our results with ATTO at 218 MB/s read and 364 MB/s write. Further down, we find 512K results just under the sequential results, while 4K at QD1 and QD32 were similar as well at 26.5 MB/s read and 79 MB/s write.

For those in the market for an external solution with multiple connectivity options, the Addonics UDD25 is certainly at the top of its class. Along with having options for both USB 3.0 and eSATA, this solution is bus powered making it extremely portable for those that tend to travel more often than not.

On the front of the unit, we have even more options with the modular 2.5" design, utilizing a standard form factor the UDD25 allows you to insert hard drives and solid state drives up to 9mm thick, and taking things further utilizing the adapters, you can obtain even more options including SATA m.2 and mSATA.

Performance of the Pocket UDD25 over USB 3.0 was quite good. While the write speeds were mostly dominate with this particular solution, we were able to reach 224 MB/s read with ATTO and 218 MB/s with CrystalDiskMark. Going back to the write performance, we were able to reach upwards of 373 MB/s with ATTO disk benchmark, while CDM produced 364 MB/s.

On the downside, the Addonics Pocket UDD25 in its standard form reviewed here today doesn't include the additional adapters for the support of mSATA, m.2 and Compactflash. However, with that being said, Addonics has produced a "Pro" model that does include the adapters, of course for a little bit more of your hard earned money.

MSRP of the Addonics Pocket UDD25 is listed at $44.99, while the Pro model with the adapters is listed with a MSRP of $114.99. Each solution carries a one-year warranty.