Transcend StoreJet 25C3N 1TB Portable HDD Review

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Portable SSDs have taken over both the high-capacity and high-performance segments of the portable drive market. Even so, many vendors are still kicking out spinning disk solutions, and that includes the latest from Transcend, the StoreJet 25C3N.

The 25C3N is the latest portable solution from Transcend, offered in both 1TB and 2TB capacities. Connectivity is provided via USB 3.0 with marketing specifications reaching 140 MB/s. The chassis has been updated from the last model with an aluminum alloy enclosure coming in at 9.5mm that Transcend describes as a "fashion statement." On the software side, it includes Transcend Elite, allowing backup and restore as well as AES 256-bit encryption for the drive.

The MSRP for the Transcend 25C3N in the 1TB capacity comes in at $89.99 with a three-year warranty.

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Looking at the packaging, we have the capacity at the bottom with a window to see the drive itself.

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The back of the packaging has a full specifications list along with a table showing what this drive can store.

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The scope of delivery gives us a USB cable and the drive itself.

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Looking at the drive, we have an aluminum enclosure with the Transcend logo at the top left.

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On the end, we have the USB-Micro B connection, and to the left, the activity LED.

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The Transcend toolbox allows you to format and even low-level format your drive.

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The Elite software gives you access to backup, restore, and encryption tools for the 25C3N.

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Usable capacity reached 931GB for the 1TB model.

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Diving in, Disk Info shows us Transcend using a Seagate hard drive internally with a 5400 RPM spindle speed.

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Running USB Flash Bench, we see a solid 148 MB/s read and 111 MB/s write.

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Moving over to ATTO, we see a good range for the drive's performance. We see 133 MB/s read and 129 MB/s write from 32k through 64M.

The 25C3N is a solid entry into Transcend's portfolio. The build quality has been stepped up over previous models with the aluminum enclosure, and it even adds to the aesthetics, but I am curious how well this drive would hold up to being slammed around in a bag over time.

The performance was on par with marketing as I was easily able to reach 148 MB/s read and 130 MB/s write depending on the workload, and ATTO showed solid performance from 32k to 64M file sizes.

The Elite software is very straight forward and easy to use offering both backup and encryption options for the drive-in addition to cloud backup. Overall, I enjoyed my time with the 25C3N but at its current MSRP of $89.99, it's a bit pricey in the current market, especially with WD, Seagate, and Toshiba offering 1TB solutions at the $50 price point.

Tyler's Test System Specifications

• Motherboard: ASUS Maximus IX Hero (buy from Amazon)
• CPU: Intel Core i7 7700K (buy from Amazon) / (Read our Review)
• Memory: G.SKILL TridentZ DDR4 3200 (buy from Amazon)
• Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Hybrid (buy from Amazon)
• OS Storage: Intel 730 480GB SSD (buy from Amazon) / (Read our Review)
• Secondary Storage: MyDigitalSSD BP5 512GB SSD (buy from Amazon)
• Case: EVGA DG-86 (buy from Amazon)
• Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 750 P2 (buy from Amazon)
• Networking: ASUS PCE-AC88 AC3100 (buy from Amazon)
• Networking: ASUS ROG 10G Express
• Networking: ASUS Thunderbolt EX3 (buy from Amazon)
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 (buy from Amazon)