MyDigitalSSD OTG (On The Go) Pocket SuperSpeed USB 3.0 mSATA SSD Review (256GB)

Two of the best things seen in recent external SSDS are the inclusion of SuperSpeed, along with the obvious massive reduction in size.  Just yesterday we posted a report of the EDGE diskGO SuperSpeed USB 3.0 flash drive where speeds of 449MB/s and 428MB/s were realized from a device the same size as a matchbox.  Like the MyDigitalSSD OTG (On The Go) Pocket SSD we are reviewing today, the diskGO is UASP compliant with SuperSpeed, requires no external power other than the USB cable, and both qualify as being two of the smallest and fastest performing storage devices we have had in our hands yet.

MyDigitalSSD OTG Pocket SSD Angled

For those just starting to look at the performance of flash drives and external SSDs, a quick test of the OTG in USB 2.0 results in a top performance of 43MB/s, while USB 3.0 boosts that to 335MB/s, or roughly just under 8x faster.  Now, when we kick in the same drive with SuperSpeed, the speed jumps to 441MB/s, or 10x faster than that same device using 2.0.  How does this translate into moving files?  Just to establish our point, we moved a 9GB Blu-ray movie in USB 2.0, USB 3.0 and then USB 3.0 SuperSpeed.  USB 2.0 took 3 min 49 sec, USB 3.0 took 31sec and then SuperSpeed cut that time even further to 24 seconds . That was a Blu-ray film; it took only 3 seconds to move a HD movie.

MYDIGITALSSD OTG SUPERSPEED POCKET SSD

The MyDigitalSSDOTG Pocket SSD is available in capacities of 64, 128 and 256GB, the latter of which we are testing today.  The OTG is UASP compliant and it is worthy of mention that, to get SuperSpeed performance, the system that you are plugging the OTG into must also be UASP compliant.

MyDigitalSSD OTG Pocket SSD Exterior FrontMyDigitalSSD OTG Pocket SSD Exterior BackThe OTG is fully backward compatible to USB 2.0 and works with all Windows versions, Mac OSX and Linux. Performance for all capacities is listed at 465MB/s read and 450MB/s write and it comes standard with a 3 year warranty.

MyDigitalSSD OTG Pocket SSD Open Package

Checking out pricing at Amazonblank, we can see the OTG listed at $65, $100 and $170 which brings this SSD well below the typical cost when considering $/GB value.

MYDIGITALSSD OTG POCKET SSD COMPONENTS

The OTG is constructed of a plastic, but solid, shell which protects both a PCB and mSATA SSD.

MyDigitalSSD OTG Pocket SSD FrontMyDigitalSSD OTG Pocket SSD Back

The PCB contains an ASMedia 1053 chip which bridges the SATA host controller to SuperSpeed USB 3.0, as well as a SATA 3 connector for the SSD itself.

MyDigitalSSD OTG Pocket SSD UnscrewedThe PCB fits into place through a simple connector, while the mSATA SSD is held down be two Phillips screws.  Once the SSD is removed, the PCB can be lifted and pulled back for removal.

MyDigitalSSD OTG Pocket SSD USB3 PCB

The SSD is a mSATA SSD and contains the SATA 3 Phison PS3108-S8 eight channel controller, along with 4 modules of Toshiba 19nm mlc NAND flash memory. The maximum performance listed by Phison for this controller is 520MB/s read and 480MB/s write.

MyDigitalSSD OTG Pocket SSD PCB FrontAs this SSD is a 256GB capacity, each memory module would have to be 64GB in size.  Once the MyDigitalSSD OTG SuperSpeed Pocket SSD is formatted, the total available storage available to the user is a bit less, at 223GB.

MyDigitalSSD OTG Pocket SSD PCB Back

17 comments

  1. blank

    and is there a “SuperSpeed PCIE card that can be added to a system to allow these fantastic speeds???

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    I am new to SSDs and so i have a question, which google couldnt really answer: How i can exactly determine if my motherboard is UASP compliant? (Z77A-G43 (MS-7758) Or didnt I understand UASP right? Is it enough to use Windows8 to get UASP compatible or do I need to use a special motherboard to get those sick max speeds?

    Thank you , great HP !

    • blank

      Don’t hang me if I am incorrect but UASP is integrated in Win 8…if the hardware supports it. All motherboards tat I know will identify it somehow and, in most cases, there will ne a SuperSpeed icon on the USB 3.0 ports that have SS. WE have several motherboards with and without and all newer boards contain it…and more importantly, identify it somewhere in the literature or on the board.

      Hope this helps.

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    Can I swap in any msata drive or is the controller locked to mydigitalssd? Thinking a good home for a 1TB ego 😉

  4. blank

    I bought one after reading this review, only got 132 mb/s seq read 250mb/s write, 15mb/s 4k read and 27mb/s write. Then i try it on my imac, it’s still not as good as the result from this review, feeling disappointed. My firmware version is S8FM07.7.

    • blank

      Those readings are definitely questionable. Unfortunately, we have no way of determining if it is the drive or your system that might be causing the questionable speeds.

      • blank

        Thanks for reply. I check their website, they have the same performance on usb3.0 port without uasp support. With uasp support, they seems have the same sequence speed in this review. However, their 4k result is slightly higher than mine, 18m/s read/38m/s write, which is still significantly lower than the result in this review.

      • blank

        UASP support is the key here.

  5. blank

    Does it work with an android device with the otg?

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    Can it work with ANDROID ?

    If it can use USB 3.0 B connector to USB 3.0 B connector and plug in to the SAMSUNG Note 3 – it would be perfect for on-the-go storage and reading of Video and Data files via the SAMSUNG Note 3.

  7. blank

    I recently purchased this drive based on this review and others. The drive performs incredibly well. I am running Windows 8.1 Enterprise Windows To Go from it and it is faster than my internal SSD! I have one concern – When booted from Win 8.1 on the OTG drive, windows sees the drive as a traditional HDD and not an SSD. I assume this means that it is not being managed correctly (ie TRIM, etc). Should I be concerned? Is there a way to set windows up so that it is aware that it is running from an SSD? Can I run TRIM manually on the drive even though the OS thinks it’s a hard drive?

    Thanks!

  8. blank

    I purchased the MyDigitalSSD 256GB to use as an external back-up on my MacMini OSX 10.9, but Time Machine would not use it to back me up. Failed. Help, I do not want to boot anything, or migrate to a faster Mac, I just want to use this handy storage as an external back up. So I dragged and dropped all my docs, pictures, desktop items over to it. It is busy copying them. Is a manual backup the way to go?

  9. blank

    Bought SSD OTG device formatted as FAT. Can i reformat this to NTFS? What will the problem in the future if I do this?

  10. blank

    I only experienced 1.95MB/sec and 2.29MB/sec transfer copy from NTFS . I cannot paste a screenshot as a proof here to show as compared with the advertised speed of 10x faster

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