- Corsair Memory and others show off their USB 4 portable SSDs at CES 2025
- USB 4 is as fast as Thunderbolt 3/4 and twice as fast as USB 3.2 Gen2x2
- Enables much more demanding storage requirements, such as 8K RAW storage.
Working with a slow SSD can be very frustrating, but fortunately there are a number of solutions to the problem on the horizon.
A host of manufacturers demonstrated portable USB 4 drives at CES 2025, giving us a tantalizing glimpse of a future without slow USB 3.2 SSDs, and among the most eye-catching was a sneak peek of Corsair’s new EX400U SSD.
This nifty piece of hardware features a 40Gbps USB 4 interface and comes in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB formats. According to Corsair, the new SSD offers sequential read speeds of 4,000 MB/s, along with write speeds of 3,600 MB/s.
Why USB 4 is the way to go
Separately, Adata made a big announcement with the launch of the new XPG SE940 portable SSD, marking the first time the storage company has leveraged USB 4 technology in its product slate.
This powerful kit can achieve sequential read and write speeds of up to 4000 MB/s. Notably, this not only makes the SE940 the fastest portable drive in the company’s lineup, but also TechRadar Pro As recently noted, one of the highest performing products on the external storage market.
But in an industry inundated with marketing jargon and grandiose claims, does USB 4 really live up to the hype?
First announced in 2019, USB 4 heralded a new connectivity standard and so far it has certainly lived up to the hype. In terms of bandwidth, USB 4 offers up to 4oGbps, making it twice as fast as USB 3.2 (Gen2x2) and along with Thunderbolt 3 and 4 connections.
This is a significant increase in capacity when it comes to transfers. Especially when you consider the increasingly voluminous data sets that organizations and everyday users are now dealing with.
USB 3.2’s performance capabilities (or lack thereof) have been particularly evident when it comes to 8K data file storage and transfer, for example.
There has been a steady stream of devices, particularly SSDs, released lately that use USB 4, but given the focus on CES 2025, expect this to become a torrent in the coming year.
