ADATA SE800 Ultra Fast USB 3.2 Gen2 USB-C Portable SSD Review

TweakTown's Rating: 89%

The Bottom Line

ADATA's SE800 offers top notch performance in a durable and IP68 certified enclosure.

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ADATA has a long history with portable drives. Recently, they have updated their portfolio to include more solid state solutions, as seen with our review of the SC680 a few weeks back. One of their most popular designs has also taken a recent upgrade in technology, and today we have the chance to run it through testing.

The SE lineup goes back to 2015 when we were one of the first to "beta" test the SE730 portable SSD. When this drive came to market, it had undergone a design change, and ADATA has stayed with that design since. The SE800, in house today, follows that same design with new color options and capacities.

Also, the SE800 has had a significant upgrade to its underlying hardware, with a custom-designed PCB with 3D NAND and USB 3.2 Gen2 capabilities. This gives the SE800 performance near 1000 MB/s for each of the 512GB and 1TB models available.

Compatibility includes Windows, macOS, and Linux. MSRP of the ADATA SE800 512GB comes in at $149.99 with a three-year warranty.

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Packaging has been upgraded for the SE800, with a proper box, including capacity bottom right.

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The back goes into more detail with a full specification list and use cases on the left.

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Unboxing the SE800, we have a USB-C cable, C to A cable, and reading materials.

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The drive shares its design with the SE730H with a new blue anodized colorway. Black has also been made available.

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The SE800 offers IP68 certification against dust and water along with a shockproof design. The USB-C port can be found under the sealed endcap.

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The SE800 is factory formatted with the NTFS filesystem. This allows 476GB of usable space. It will need reformatting for compatibility with macOS.

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In CrystalDiskMark, I was able to grab 940 MB/s read and 872 MB/s write.

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Testing in ATTO, we reach maximum performance at 256K through 64M.

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Price/Performance is not kind to the ADATA SE800, mostly due to its high price for the given capacity. As seen above, the 512GB model gets a score of 71% while the 1TB at $189 with equal performance would garner a rating of 89%.

The SE800 enjoys solid build quality thanks to generous material choices by ADATA. The blue or black anodized aluminum while offering a positive method of sealing for its IP68 certification aides the drive both in the hand feel of the drive and aesthetics.

Performance has been upgraded tremendously over the 730H, nearly doubling to performance up to 970 MB/s read in my testing, with equally upgraded write performance, now sitting at 870 MB/s. ATTO shows solid range and consistency for the SE800 with no drops in performance after it hit its stride at 256K.

As for pricing, things are a bit odd at the moment, with the 512GB model coming in at $149.99 and the 1TB sitting at $189.99. In my opinion, to be more competitive, the SE800 needs to halve its 512GB price and move the 1TB model in line with its competition, around $159. That said, as it sits the 512GB model just isn't worth your money, you would be much better served by the larger 1TB solution.

Tyler's Test System Specifications

• Motherboard: ASUS Crosshair VIII Formula X570 (buy from Amazon)
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (buy from Amazon)
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB 2x8GB DDR4 3600 (buy from Amazon)
• Cooler: Corsair Hydro H60 (buy from Amazon)
• Case: Corsair Carbide 275R (buy from Amazon)
• OS Storage: Corsair MP600 1TB (buy from Amazon)
• Power Supply: Corsair RM850x (buy from Amazon)
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 (buy from Amazon)