Lexar Professional SL600 Portable SSD

The Lexar Professional SL600 Portable SSD (starts at $129.99; $234.99 for 2TB as tested), an external solid-state drive geared to creative pros, has a striking design and produced strong results in PCMark 10, an industry-standard benchmark that measures speed at a variety of common storage tasks. It lacks some of the ruggedness cred of the Editors' Choice-winning ADATA SD810, which did even better on PCMark 10, but it's a worthy alternative. Just note that it supports USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, an interface found on few computers, so you may need to add an expansion card to your desktop PC to get the maximum throughput of which the SL600 is capable. (It'll still work with a much more common Gen 2 port, just slower.)

Design: A Large SSD With a Carrying Loop

The stylish Lexar Professional SL600 is nearly the spitting image of the Lexar SL600 Blaze, its counterpart in the gaming sphere. A bit larger than many of today's external SSDs (which have been trending smaller and smaller), it measures 0.5 by 2.2 by 4.4 inches and weighs 2.2 ounces. Housed in an aluminum enclosure with a sandblasted finish, the matte-black SL600 has beveled edges and squared corners. One end is asymmetrical and ends with a loop for a carabiner clip, so the SL600 can be easily attached to a belt loop, a backpack, or a travel bag. The SL600 lacks the ring of RGB lighting lining the interior of the loop on the gaming-centric SL660 Blaze, but otherwise their appearances are identical.

On the other end of the SL600 is a USB-C port that supports the USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 standard. Most computers do not natively support it, so if you have a desktop PC you may need to add an expansion card with a Gen 2x2 port to get speeds close to its promised throughput, or else you'll be stuck with USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds, maxing out at about 1,050MBps. Check out our USB-C explainer for more on the differences between the USB interfaces.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Also note that with USB4 starting to show up in computers and external drives, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 may be superseded without ever coming into its own. Don't count on future computers to support the 2x2 standard: USB4 is Gen 2x2's heir apparent, with throughput speed ratings of up to 40Gbps for its faster variant. (Check out our first review of a USB4 external SSD, the OWC Express 1M2.)

In addition to the 2TB version we tested, a 4TB version of the SL600 SSD is expected out this summer.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Lexar states that in its internal testing, the SL600 has shock and vibration resistance, though the company claims neither MIL-STD-810G 516.6 impact resistance or an ingress protection (IP) rating. In contrast, the Editors' Choice-winning ADATA SD810 has an ingress protection rating of IP68, which denotes near-imperviousness to dust or water, and it meets the MIL-STD-810G 516.6 spec.

The SL600 includes DataShield, Lexar's 256-bit AES encryption software solution, and the company backs the SL600 with a five-year warranty, which is common among external SSDs from major manufacturers.

Testing the Lexar SL600: Snappy for Everyday Storage

We test USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 external SSDs using one of PC Labs' Windows 10 storage testbeds. For most external SSDs, we use the 10GBps USB 3.2 Gen 2 port on our testbed system's motherboard; for Gen 2x2 drives like this Lexar model, though, we use a Gen 2x2 port that has been specially added to the system via an Orico PCIe expansion card. USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports are common enough, but Gen 2x2 ports (which double the theoretical top bandwidth) are much rarer.

We subjected the SL600 to our usual suite of external solid-state drive benchmarks, comprising Crystal DiskMark 6.0, the PCMark 10 Data Drive Benchmark, Blackmagic's Disk Speed Test, and our own folder transfer test. We run the latter two tests on an Apple MacBook Pro.

Crystal DiskMark's sequential speed tests provide a traditional measure of drive throughput, simulating best-case, straight-line transfers of large files. The PCMark 10 Data Drive test measures an SSD's speed in performing a variety of workaday tasks.

In Crystal DiskMark testing, the SL600 fell just short of its sequential read-speed rating and well short of its write-speed rating, but within the normal range of USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 SSDs, few of which match their rated read speeds or, especially, their write speeds. It tallied scores very similar to several recent Gen 2x2 SSDs we have tested, namely the ADATA SD810, the Crucial X10 Pro, and the LaCie Rugged Mini SSD. These scores are much higher than those from USB 3.2 Gen 2 SSDs, which typically have throughput ratings of 1,050MBps for both read and write speeds.

In PCMark 10 testing, the SL600 had one of the best scores we have seen for a Gen 2x2 SSD, trailing only the ADATA SD810 and Seagate FireCuda Gaming SSD among our comparison drives, and performing considerably better than the Lexar SL660 Blaze.

The SL600 had typical results for a Gen 2x2 drive on our two Mac-based benchmarks. Overall, the SL600's results, highlighted by its strong PCMark 10 performance, show an SSD that is capable of quickly performing a variety of tasks, making it a good choice for a general-purpose external drive.

Verdict: A Good Performer, But Not a Standout

While similar to the Lexar SL660 Blaze, the Lexar Professional SL600 Portable SSD lacks that gaming-oriented SSD's bling lighting. But it did better than the Blaze on the PCMark 10 benchmark, which measures a drive's performance at a variety of common tasks. Also, while the SL660's capacity maxes out at 1TB, the SL600 is currently offered in sizes up to 2TB, with a larger 4TB variant on the way.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The SL600 is a handsome drive (if a bit on the bulky side) and a good performer. According to Lexar, it has some shock and vibration resistance, though it lacks official protection ratings or MIL-STD badges. The Editors' Choice-winning ADATA SD810, which seems tiny next to the SL600, lacks that drive's encryption, but has an excellent IP rating and MIL-STD-810G 516.6 cred. Both were strong performers on the PCMark10 benchmark, but the SD810's results were better. So the SD810 retains its Editors' Choice award, while the SL600 is a worthy choice as a 2x2 SSD, especially if you need one that can be easily cinched to a belt or travel bag.