At a glance
Expert assessment
Per
- Very high data transfer rates
- High-quality living
- Good cooling without fan
Our verdict
Data transfer rates of around 3,000 MBps, high-quality housing with good thermal behavior and an attractive price. In short: The OWC Express 1M2 is a great all-round external SSD.
Best prices today: OWC Express 1M2 USB4 SSD
263 €
246,89 €
The OWC Express 1M2 impresses with its cooling fin design. The cooling fins alone make up around half the height of this external SSD. Good cooling is extremely important, especially for fast NVMe SSD drives.
We tested how well the cooling works with a longer Blackmagicdesign Disk Speed Test. After just 30 minutes, the cooling fins and the bottom of the case warmed up noticeably. After an hour, the temperature rose significantly to around 40 degrees Celsius, but was not so hot that you could burn your fingers.
The aluminum casing is quite large at 13.2 x 7.1 x 2.3 centimeters, but the Express 1M2 can be used as both a desktop and mobile storage medium. The very high-quality metal casing also has sufficiently large rubber surfaces on the underside. These not only prevent scratches on the table, but also offer good slip protection.
The included connection cable is quite short at around 22 centimeters. The Express 1M2 is available both as an empty case and fully configured from 1TB to 8TB. We tested the 8TB version, which costs a whopping $1,400. The 1TB model is significantly cheaper at $250.
To test the speed, we used two benchmarks, Aja System Test Lite and Blackmagicdesign Disk Speed Test. The results are impressive: 2736 MB/s (write) and 2980 MB/s (read) in the Aja System Test Lite. The values in the Blackmagicdesign Disk Speed Test were around 100 MB/s higher – in the read test it cracked the 3000 MB/s mark.
Another positive aspect of the endurance test was that the data transfer rate did not drop even after an hour. OWC states a speed of 3150MBps when reading with a 14-inch MacBook Pro. To verify this value, we simulated the OWC test in the Aja System Test Lite on an M3 MacBook Air and a Mac Studio and got almost identical results with reading rates of over 3100MBps.
Should you buy the OWC Express 1M2??
With the Express 1M2, OWC has created an SSD drive with a very good price-performance ratio. The data transfer rates are among the absolute best on the Mac and the housing is also exemplary in terms of thermal performance. The Express 1M2 is also future-proof; OWC states that it is compatible with 16 B NVMe SSD storage. So if you want to upgrade later, you don’t have to worry. If you buy the Express 1M2 fully configured with storage, OWC offers a three-year warranty. With the empty housing, it is two years.
This article originally appeared on Macworld and was translated by Roman Loyola.
This article originally appeared in our sister publication Macwelt and has been translated and localized from German.
