OWC Envoy Mini Pro is a solid-state drive built using SSD technology. It’s a sleek, metal-clad storage device that ‘s compact and easy to carry around in your jeans pocket. Built using SSD technology, the Envoy Pro Mini is essentially a fusion of standard flash drives and a full-on solid-state drive. The idea is to bring the best of both worlds – small enough to fit into your pocket but performs much faster than standard flash drives.
Design
The OWC Envoy Pro Mini is a metal-clad solid-state drive that looks like a typical USB thumb drive. That said, it comes with a robust build thanks to its metal-clad outer casing. Besides, it has no moving parts which make it resistant to vibrations or accidental drops.
It’s made out of aluminum and sports a silver finish. The overall build quality of this drive is excellent, and it easily withstands the wear and tear of everyday usage.
In terms of dimensions, it measures 0.44×0.94×3.7 inches and weighs just under 29 grams, which makes it rather easy to carry around. In fact, it can easily fit into the lighter/coin pocket in front of your jeans. Besides, you can easily carry it around your neck if you need to instantly access your files.
Performance and Features
The OWC Envoy Pro Mini is compatible with both Windows and macOS operating systems. It’s offered in 120GB, 240GB, and 480GB capacity options, all utilizing a USB 3.0 connection. We have the 240GB variant which is available for INR 16,000 on Amazon India.
The drive comes with a software guide that lets you partition the drive as per your needs. It comes unformatted, so we formatted it using NTFS for testing on my Windows 10 PC. The SSD will also work on Mac systems, after a format to HFS+. For our testing, we created one partition which covered the drive’s full capacity.
During testing, the drive was able to achieve read and write speeds of 209.4Mbps and 153Mbps respectively. Now, this may not be as fast as a full-fledged SSD, but still much faster compared to traditional flash drives. The drive performs well in daily activities and feels much faster compared to USB thumb drives. That said, the drive did get noticeably warm during testing, but not really hot.
Wrap Up
The OWC Envoy Pro Mini is a great gadget to carry around, especially if you’re constantly on the move and need to transfer files frequently. Since it uses SSD technology, both read and write speeds are much faster than a USB thumb drive. Besides, it can easily withstand the abuse of everyday usage thanks to its sturdy build quality. It’s a great tool for any professional who needs a sturdy, reliable and most importantly – a fast portable drive for instantly accessing or transferring files. With the Envoy Pro Mini, you are essentially carrying a flash drive having SSD capabilities in your pocket. The only flaw is its tendency to get warm after an hour or so. So its best to use this drive for short sessions – under an hour or so.
