OWC Envoy Pro Mini Portable SSD (Review)

OWC is a king when it comes to storage and peripherals targeting Mac users, while also being mostly compatible with Windows and more all the same. The company has a long history of manufacturing solid products that live well through time and function, using quality materials, and providing competitive specs that help improve daily productivity. One of its many latest is the OWC Envoy Pro Mini Portable SSD, which is an excellent portable SSD solution. It is around the size of your average thumb drive and  has recently received a new capacity option in the series

This drive is available in 250GB ($79), 500GB ($99), 1TB ($169), and now 2TB ($299) options. The latter in the series (2TB) was just introduced at NAB 2024 in Las Vegas last month. Although the new capacity isn’t what we have been testing, the specs remain the same. So you can expect to see the same performance across the board between all of these models.

We have been testing the 1TB option, which still provides mobile users with plenty of portable storage while traveling. The series (including this model) was first introduced a few years ago in 2022, and it has seen plenty of success since.

It isn’t the first SSD of its size, but it is one of the more popular options. What makes it special is its built-in USB-A to USB-C adapter, giving the users options when it comes to the types of devices it is compatible with right out of the box. No additional adapter is needed. Allowing you to use it with computers, laptops, and most of your favorite mobile devices. As long as the device takes USB drives over USB-A or USB-C, it has you covered

The drive is made out of quality thick aluminum material, making it both heat resistant since the heat can spread around, and incredibly durable. Allowing it to resist common physical stress that may occur while traveling. Like small drops, bumps, scratches, and other concerns.

It is natively USB Type-A in design until you spin it back closed and pop open the cap on the other end. Revealing the USB Type-C connection.

So you can easily transfer files between a computer and a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet. Thus if the two devices aren’t located in the same location, you don’t have to worry.

It is also good for DJs and other career users who could heavily benefit from such a drive. It is fully mobile, offers dual connectivity, spreads heat wrong so it can run mostly cool, and is incredibly fast when connected to the right port.

It is capable of up to 946MB/s as long as your device has a USB 3.2 or higher USB-C port. This includes normal USB 3.2, USB4, Thunderbolt 3 (TB3), or Thunderbolt 4 (TB4). Of course, it is also backward-compatible with older ports as well, but with a sacrifice in speed since the slower ports bottleneck the process.

Thus if you plug it into a USB 3 or USB 3.1 (aka USB 3.2 Gen 1) port, you’ll see speeds of around half as much. Plugging it into older ports will yield even slower speeds.

In our experience, we have been plugging it mostly into TB4 and USB4 ports both on laptops and computers. In doing so, we have seen speeds of around 938.7 MB/s read and 850 MB/s write. Which is perfect for where the drive is trying to hit for an average.

We have found that the drive operates cool enough that you won’t have to worry about things like thermal throttling. Assuming you aren’t trying to run a AAA game directly from it for hours at a time, at least (something you’d normally save for an actual TB4/USB4 solution anyway). We encoded a 30-minute 4K video directly to it and it never got hot enough to have any concerns.

You likely won’t be encoding video directly to it like we did as that too could benefit from an even faster (and more expensive) solution if speed is a concern. But it provided a great test scenario for trying to build some heat. For most users, you’ll be using this to simply move data between various sources, which makes perfect sense.

When you first take it out of the box, there is a little setup you need to accomplish before using it. This is because it operates like a normal SSD more so than it does a thumb drive. So you will have to format a partition onto it. It will not be pre-formatted. So when you first plug it into your system, make sure it is a computer so you can use something like Disk Manager (Windows) or Disk Manager (MacOS) to create the partition (or partitions if you want to get fancy).

Currently, the newer 2TB model is only available via OWC’s website. It shows coming soon at B&H and hasn’t even listed anywhere else just yet. However, the lower-capacity models are currently available at most certified retailers.

Our Conclusion

So far, the drive has proven to be quite durable and its performance is just as impressive. A great all-around solution for various devices and projects. Especially, if you find yourself moving data between multiple types of devices.

The speed is perfect for those in the rush while balancing such with device compatibility. You could spend the extra money on a TB4 or USB4 device and get even better transfers, but you’ll severely sacrifice on the number of devices capable of taking advantage of such. This allows you to bring your work with you everywhere you do, and plug it into just about anything.

The price is a little high, but you are paying for the fact that it is a high capacity tucked into a small profile without any of the caveats and with quality materials and durability. That, and you are paying a little for the name as well. OWC fans will know what I mean.

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