Portable storage was always been interesting to me. Over the years I have seen many different style enclosures and technologies in them anywhere from SD card enclosures to NVMe SSDs. Some of the devices offer encryption technologies so you can keep your files secure no matter what. These types of devices come handy in areas such as Law and CPA offices where secure data needs to be kept secured. The Lexar SL200 is a portable storage device based on SSD SATA 3 that is small in size and ready to take on any of your storage needs with handy encryption software. Lexar SL200 has a USB 3.1 interface that provides SATA 3 speeds for reading and writing data.
[sc name=”sponsor” sponsor=”Lexar” product_link=”https://www.lexar.com/portfolio_page/ssd-sl200/” product_name=”SL200 Portable SSD” ]
[section_title title=Introduction and Specifications]
The Lexar SL200 comes in a variety of Capacities, 512Gb, 1TB, and 2TB. The packaging of SL200 is simple but yet very informative. Just by looking at the packaging, you can get a sense of what is inside. On the bottom left corner, you can see the proposed read speed and on the right of the packaging, you can see the capacity of the device inside. My review sample came in a 1TB form size.
#gallery-0-30 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-30 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-30 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-30 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
There is some additional information about the SL200 on the back of the packaging such as general physical information on the SL200 and the AES encryption software that is included on the device.
#gallery-0-31 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-31 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-31 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-31 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
The Lexar SL200 has a single USB 3.1 Type C Connector to connect to your devices. Cables included with the SL200 are Type-C to Type-C and Type-C to USB.
Actual size of the SL200 is 60 x 86 x 9.5 mm. The design of the SL200 reminds me of SSD design but just a little bit smaller. The weight of the SL200 is only 40.6 grams.
Color Gray Capacity
512GB, 1TB, 2TB Interface USB 3.1 Type-C Speed
Up to 550MB/s read, up to 400MB/s write System Supported
Standard USB Type-A/Type-C or Thunderbolt 3 connector
Operating Temperature
0° C to 70° C (32°F to 158°F) Storage Temperature
-40° C to 85° C (-40°F to 185°F) Dimension (W x L x H)
86 mm x 60 mm x 9.5 mm / 3.39” x 2.36” x 0.37” Weight
40.6 g / 0.09 lbs (Without Cable)
[section_title title=Closer Look at the Lexar SL200 Portable SSD]
Closer Look at the Lexar SL200 Portable SSD
#gallery-0-32 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-32 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-32 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-32 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
The SL200 has a stylish look to it and very pleasant to touch. One side of the SL200 is completely smooth and the other side has a decorative design on it. On the front of the SL200, there is the ‘Lexar’ logo and on the back of the device, there are clear markings of the capacity and serial number. The material the SL200 is made from is ABS plastic. ABS plastic is light and durable and is great for small external storage devices like this.
#gallery-0-33 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-33 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-33 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-33 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
The SL200 is only 9.5 mm deep and extremely light. The only connector on the SL200 is the USB 3.1 Type-C connector. To show access to the device Lexar has placed a micro-LED near the Type-C port. When the device is being accessed this LED gently blinks white.
#gallery-0-34 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-34 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-34 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-34 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
As I have mentioned earlier, the SL200 is about 86 mm in length which is just about the length of the credit card. Storing this device would be extremely easy and also easy to lose because of its weight.
I have tried to take the SL200 apart to see what kind of components were inside but once I have removed what I thought was a secure plate I quickly realized that there is no way of opening this device without breaking it.
The SL200 Could be connected to mobile devices or computes via enclosed USB 3.1 Cables. It is also worth to mention that the tables are about 10 inches long.
[section_title title=Encryption Software Overview]
Encryption Software Overview
Software encryption in the SL200 is done by Lexar DataSafe application that comes pre-installed on the drive. Just explore the drive and double click on an executable in the root of the drive.
After ‘Agreeing’ to the terms and conditions, you are going to be prompted to create a secure ‘Password’ that you will be using to access your encrypted files. Create your passwords as complex as you can.
#gallery-0-35 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-35 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-35 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-35 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
Once you have created your password the Lexar DataSafe workspace will be presented to you.
#gallery-0-36 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-36 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-36 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-36 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
From here you can move files from your local drives into the protected archive on the SL200 drive. The ‘File Transferring’ could take a while to complete so please be patient. Smaller files and folders would be encrypted relatively faster than the larger folders.
While exploring the app I didn’t find any way to adjust encryption levels of this device. As advertised the encryption of the app is based on AES256.
[section_title title=Benchmarks]
System Configuration Component Product Name Provided By Case Open Test Bench CPU Intel Core i7 9700K CPU Cooler Celsius+ S36 Prisma Fractal Design Motherboard EVGA Z390 FTW EVGA Ram (2) 8GB Corsair DDR4-3200 CMW16GX4M2C3200C16 Corsair GPU MSI GeForce RTX™ 2080 Super GAMING X TRIO MSI Monitor BenQ EL2870U 28 inch 4K HDR Gaming Monitor 3840×2160 @ 60 Hz Hard Drives Adata XPG SX8200 PRO (512GB) Adata Power Supply Thermal Take Tough Power RGB 80 Plus Gold 750W
Crystal Disk Mark benchmark at 1GB test size:
#gallery-0-37 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-37 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-37 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-37 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
Unlike CrystalDiskMark, the ATTO disk benchmark is a 32-bit compressible data benchmark that measures read and write speeds across various file transfer sizes from 512B to 64MB to show SSD behavior.
#gallery-0-38 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-38 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-38 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-38 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
Based on the Crystal Disk Benchmark I can clearly see the advertised performance of the device as far as ‘Read’ speeds go. The ‘Write’ speeds were not advertised on the packaging of the SL200. Keep in mind, this is always the best case scenario and is done in a lab. Considering write speeds are always slightly slower than ‘Read’ speeds, the SL200 has performed well. Under the 75% load of the storage device, the SL200 performed as well as when the drive was empty. Sequential ‘Read’ speeds were recorded up to 560.8 MB.s and Sequential ‘Write’ speeds were recorded up to 442 MB/s. Looking at the ATTO Disk Benchmark data I saw a similar performance as a Crystal Disk Benchmark however here I saw some random write choking. Once SSD’s cache fills up the ‘Write’ performance drops significantly. This means you will see a performance drop in speed while transferring large/multiple files to the drive.
[section_title title=Final Thoughts]
The Lexar SL200 is an interesting storage device. Its elegant design and ease of use really do captures the eye. The Lexar SL200 is based on the SSD SATA 3 chipset that offers the performance of an SSD on the go. The SL200 can be connected to smartphones, computers, cars, etc. If you have a USB Type-C connector, you can take advantage of the Lexar’s SL200. While playing around with the device it performs as expected based on the information provided by Lexar. You are getting SSD performance to store your files. The SL200 also offers AES256 encryption of the files via built-in Lexar DataSafe software. DataSafe is easy to use and should not need any explanation as the GUI is very intuitive. Encrypting files do take some time to process but this is expected on any encryption levels.
Based on my benchmarks, the SL200 performs as advertised by Lexar. The expected speed of the SL200 should be close to the same as the SSD SATA 3 storage devices. I did find that while transferring large/multiple files to the device you will experience a significant write performance hit.
Currently, The Lexar SL200 1TB sells for about $ 170 USD. The price vs value of the SL200 is a little bit on the high side as there are similar devices on the market that perform roughly 2x as SL200. But if you do not care about the price or performance data of the SL200 and just looking for good encrypting storage then this might be a good choice for you. If you are looking to get a little more speed with great stability you might want to check out Lexar’s SL100 Pro. SL100 Pro is a similar Type-C storage device but with a 2x of performance. We have recently reviewed it here on Modders-Inc. You can find our review of SL100 Pro right here.
Overall my experience with the SL200 1TB was a pleasant one but for my liking, I would like to see a little more speed from my external storage devices.
[sc name=”approved_award” ]
[sc name=”amazon_link” amazon_link=”https://amzn.to/2FRpSwB” ]
Lexar SL200 Portable SSD Review Portable storage was always been interesting to me. Over the years I have seen many different style enclosures and technologies in them anywhere from SD card enclosures to NVMe SSDs.
