OWC Envoy Pro Elektron – Fast Rugged USB-C SSD Announced

Storage Media

by Jakub HanNovember 6^th, 2020

The OWC Envoy Pro Elektron is a new pocket-sized USB-C bus-powered SSD. It is crush-proof and dust-proof, and offers up to 1011MB/s real-world speeds. The SSD will be available in capacities of 240GB, 480GB, 1TB and 2TB.

In recent years, USB-C bus-powered SSDs have become increasingly popular (not only) amongst filmmakers, for multiple reasons. They are more affordable than memory cards (price per GB), there is an increasing number of cameras that support recording directly to these SSDs via USB-C ports, and editing can be eventually done directly from these drives.

OWC offers a wide variety of products connected to data storage. The company has recently announced a new pocket-sized USB-C SSD, called OWC Envoy Pro Elektron. They claim that it’s the world’s fastest and toughest mini-sized SSD. Let’s take a short look at its features and specs.

OWC Envoy Pro Elektron SSD

It seems that one of the main selling points of this new drive is its speed. OWC claims that the Envoy Pro Elektron SSD offers up to 1011MB/s real-world performance, thanks to an advanced NVMe technology OWC Aura SSD.

The drive is pocket-sized with an aircraft-grade aluminum body, which helps dissipate heat. It has an IP67 rating – the drive is crush-proof, dust-proof and waterproof. Apart from the obvious USB-C port, there is also a status LED on the drive’s body. With the included USB-C cable and Type-A adapter, the OWC Envoy Pro Elektron is plug-and-play compatible with Macs or PCs, as well as iPad Pro and Chromebook tablets.

Speeds of Competing SSDs

When taking a look at currently available USB-C SSDs, it seems that OWC belongs amongst the fastest performers. Please note that this is not a real-world comparison nor test. This is taken from the paper specs from B&H.

Samsung T5 offers a maximum of 540MB/s (read) and 515MB/s (write). The G-Technology SSD offers up to 560 MB/s speed, the Sandisk Extreme Portable SSD offers up to 550MB/s speed, the Angelbird SSD2GO MK2 offers 560MB/s (read) and 530MB/s (write) speeds. The Samsung T7 and Western Digital My Passport SSD both offer a sequential read speed of up to 1050MB/s and sequential write speed of up to 1000MB/s.

Price and Availability

The Envoy Pro Elektron will be available soon in capacities of 240GB, 480GB, 1.0TB and 2.0TB. Shipping starts in early and mid-November 2020. Prices have been set to $99 (240GB), $149 (480GB), $199 (1TB) and $369 (2TB).

What do you think about this new SSD? Do you use SSDs for video recording? Did you make good experiences with OWC drives? Let us know in the comment section underneath the article.