OWC Envoy Pro SX 480GB Portable SSD Review

TweakTown's Rating: 91%

The Bottom Line

Envoy Pro SX is a top notch storage solution for those needing Thunderbolt and USB 4 compatibility.

The Envoy lineup has been OWC's portable solution for years; this includes several upgrade kits for MacBooks and standalone products like today's Envoy Pro SX.

The Envoy Pro SX is an all-black aluminum design portable SSD offering several capacities that include 240GB, 480GB, 1TB, and 2TB models. Connectivity is being provided over Thunderbolt 3 and USB4 with marketing performance at 2840 MB/s. Additionally, this is a bus-powered solution, so no external power is needed.

You can pick up the OWC Envoy Pro SX in the 240GB capacity for $199 and the 480GB for $249.99; the 1TB model retails for $349 while the top capacity 2TB lands at $529.99. All four SKUs carry a three-year warranty.

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Packaging includes an image of the drive and capacity top right.

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The back includes a few words about that drive and its compatibility.

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Included in the box, we have a Thunderbolt cable and reading materials.

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The drive carries an all-aluminum design, heat sink fins milled into the enclosure.

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The end offers the Type-C connection for both Thunderbolt 4 and USB.

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Internally, we have the Aura Pro P12, but this drive can easily be swapped.

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OWC includes software to format the drive.

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Acronis True Image is included as well.

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Performance testing included a run-through CDM. In this test, we reached 2816 MB/s read, and 1521 MB/s write.

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Running through our sustained write test, we see the Envoy Pro SX land near the top of all drives with an average performance of 906 MB/s.

Envoy Pro SX is the first solution to come through, offering Thunderbolt 3 and USB 4 connectivity wrapped up in a sleek aluminum enclosure. Build quality is quite good on the surface, and at the hardware level, we have proven components in the Aura P12, a Phison E12 solution paired with the JHL6340 Thunderbolt controller.

Performance in testing met our expectations, 2816 MB/s read and 1520 MB/s write, while in our sustained performance testing, the Envoy Pro SX averaged 906 MB/s over a 200GB file.

Closing this out, the Envoy Pro SX demands a premium with its Thunderbolt connectivity, but it attempts to make that up by offering a robust aluminum enclosure that is user-serviceable.

TweakTown External Storage Test System

• System: XPG Xenia 14
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 (buy from Amazon)