RAVPower Portable SSD Review

RAVPower joins the portable SSD market and we put its drive under the spotlight to see what it's all about.

Published
Updated
Manufacturer: RAVPower (83-100000-077)
2 minutes & 21 seconds read time
TweakTown's Rating: 79%

The Bottom Line

The RAVPower SSD offers a unique small form factor design with great build quality, but performance could be better at this price point.
RAVPower Portable SSD Review 99

For those that do any amount of shopping on Amazon, RAVPower is a top brand for charging devices and portable battery solutions. Branching out into storage, they introduced the Filehub a little over a year ago, and now a portable SSD.

The RAVPower SSD takes advantage of the gum stick m.2 form factor with a very sleek chassis design that offers a two-tone aesthetic between gray and black. RAVPower has included USB-C connectivity for its SSD with Gen2 10GB/s support. Capacity options include 512GB and 1TB with the performance set at 540 MB/s read and write.

RAVPower does mention they use premium components in their drive with a JMS580 chipset and an Intel or Micron SSD. Compatibility includes both Windows and macOS platforms with an MSRP of $165.99 for the 1TB model and $89.99 for the 512GB. Both solutions come with a three-year warranty.

RAVPower Portable SSD Review 02

The packaging is put together quite well, a black box with very little branding.

RAVPower Portable SSD Review 03

The back offers model identification for each capacity.

RAVPower Portable SSD Review 04

Unboxing the RAVPower solution, we have the drive packaged in a dense foam with cables separated into their own box.

RAVPower Portable SSD Review 05

Unboxing, we have the full complement of cables include USB-C and USB-A options.

RAVPower Portable SSD Review 06

The RAVPower uses a "gum stick" form factor not much bigger than a USB flash drive.

RAVPower Portable SSD Review 07

The edge of the drive houses the USB-C connection with the activity LED to the left.

RAVPower Portable SSD Review 11

Starting off testing with CDM, the RAVPower does quite well for a SATA powered solution. In sequentials, we see 536 MB/s read and 488 MB/s write with 4K numbers hitting 20 MB/s read and write.

RAVPower Portable SSD Review 12

Moving to Anvils, the RAVPower produces a score of 1436 for read and 687 in write, and a total score of 2124.

RAVPower Portable SSD Review 13

Price/Performance for the RAVPower solution is in the middle of the pack thanks to its solid pricing.

RAVPower Portable SSD Review 14

Before we close out this review, I must mention the encryption app that is included with the RAVPower SSD. As you can see above, the app does and will throw a flag with Windows Defender, and after contacting RAVPower about this issue, they did say it was due to the advanced security access the app requests.

Finishing this up, the RAVPower solution offers a decent amount of build quality with the metal chassis and solid state design. USB-C adds to the portability allowing you to slip this drive into a pocket or bag without being intrusive.

Performance is spot on for a SATA SSD solution. We received 536 MB/s read and 488 MB/s write in our testing, and the drive did provide a 2124 score in Anvils. Price/Performance put the RAVPower in the middle of the pack with a decent performance index and good pricing.

As mentioned, pricing for the RAVPower SSD is rather good, with a $165.99 MSRP for the 1TB model. This is on par with the market for USB-C Gen2 based solutions with SATA drives.

Tyler's Test System Specifications

Photo of product for sale

Performance

70%

Quality

85%

Features

80%

Value

80%

Overall

79%

The Bottom Line

The RAVPower SSD offers a unique small form factor design with great build quality, but performance could be better at this price point.

Tyler joined the TweakTown team in 2013 and has since reviewed 100s of new techy items. Growing up in a small farm town, tech wasn't around, unless it was in a tractor. At an early age, Tyler's parents brought home their first PC. Tyler was hooked and learned what it meant to format a HDD, spending many nights reinstalling Windows 95. Tyler's love and enthusiast nature always kept his PC nearby. Eager to get deeper into tech, he started reviewing.

Newsletter Subscription
We openly invite the companies who provide us with review samples / who are mentioned or discussed to express their opinion. If any company representative wishes to respond, we will publish the response here. Please contact us if you wish to respond.