New WD My Passport SSD doubles speed – 1,050MB/s read and 1,000MB/s write!

New WD My Passport SSD doubles speed – 1050MB/s reading and 1000MB/s writing!
(Image credit: Western Digital)

Western Digital has unveiled the latest version of it WD My Passport SSD portable hard drive – and it boasts ludicrously fast read and write speeds of 1,050MB/s reading and 1,000MB/s.

The new WD My Passport SSD doubles the speed of its predecessor, which we already rank as one of the best portable SSDs – and the non-SSD version of the WD My Passport is one of our top picks for best portable hard drives, so the product family enjoys a very good lineage. 

Where the latest edition takes a huge lead on the rest of its siblings, however, is in the lightning-quick read and write speeds. This is made possible due to the NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) protocol, which employs parallel, low latency data paths to offer markedly higher performance than SAS and SATA protocols (using high speed PCIe lanes, it can double the transfer speed of a SATA interface). 

On top of those 1,050MB/s read and 1,000MB/s write speeds, the new My Passport SSD also features 256-bit AES encryption, along with shock and vibration resistance – and it is also drop resistant up to 6.5 feet (1.98m), so it won't smash to smithereens if you knock it off the table while backing up your files at Starbucks.

That kind of 'coffee shop workflow' increasingly used by photographers and content creators is definitely something that WD is targeting with the new drive. These increased transfer speeds will be a boon to those working with hi-res images and 4K video – and for those oversized files, it comes bundled with software for easy backups to your drive or cloud storage service. 

WD My Passport SSD is initially available in grey, in 500GB and 1TB capacities for $119.99 / £136.99 and $189.99 / £221.99 respectively. Blue, gold and red versions will be available later this year, along with a 2TB version for $359.99 / £ 372.99. 

Read more: 

The best portable SSDs
The best portable hard drives for photographers
The best online photo storage options: cloud storage for photographers

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James Artaius
Editor

The editor of Digital Camera World, James has 21 years experience as a journalist and started working in the photographic industry in 2014 (as an assistant to Damian McGillicuddy, who succeeded David Bailey as Principal Photographer for Olympus). In this time he shot for clients like Aston Martin Racing, Elinchrom and L'Oréal, in addition to shooting campaigns and product testing for Olympus, and providing training for professionals. This has led him to being a go-to expert for camera and lens reviews, photo and lighting tutorials, as well as industry news, rumors and analysis for publications like Digital Camera MagazinePhotoPlus: The Canon MagazineN-Photo: The Nikon MagazineDigital Photographer and Professional Imagemaker, as well as hosting workshops and talks at The Photography Show. He also serves as a judge for the Red Bull Illume Photo Contest. An Olympus and Canon shooter, he has a wealth of knowledge on cameras of all makes – and a fondness for vintage lenses and instant cameras.