CalDigit Tuff Nano Plus 2TB - Compact Rugged IP67 USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 10Gb/s External NVME SSD, Compatible with Thunderbolt 4 Mac and PC, Up to 1055MB/s (2TB Nano Plus, Royal Blue)

I have several CalDigit products, and recently purchased two Nano Tuff 500GB SSD drives over Amazon. One was purchased on July 10, 2020, and an earlier one on October 30, 2019 when they were first released. They are used to back up data every two or three weeks. No more than that. In the last month or so, this drives’ write has dropped down to lower than 75 MB/s. I used BM and and AJA System tests to gauge speed. The other drives write speeds, purchased in October 10, 2019, is a little better at about 400 MB/s. I am using them on a newer MacBook Pro 16”. I wiped and reformatted both of the drives, but that did not correct the significantly decreased read/write speeds. This is clearly unacceptable. Original write speeds were in the 800 MB/s range, and with very limited use and a reformat, the one drive reviewed here has diminished nearly 90%

Fastest drive! Best overall!

This is a review of the Caldigit Tuff Nano with a brand new 16 Macbook Pro with a thunderbolt 3 40Gbps 100 watt 17 inch OWC cable plugged directly into the T3 port on the MBP it tests at 700MB/s write and 904 MB/s read using the blackmagic design disk speed test. So beware any time you see a speed that says up to. Still its fast for the money, and small, and Ill probably buy another for field work. Small is good with the size of my kit, small and faster is a win win. Go out and buy it. Works right out of the box with Mac. Mac OS Extended (Journaled). The second photo is up against a SSD enclosure so you can see how small it is. You can buy the 2400MB/sec-2800MB/s 4x NVMe RAID 0 array drives out there but they will be much bigger. OK, I just switched the T3 cable to the one that came in the box with the drive and the speeds are a little faster, 776MB/s and 908MB/s. Interesting. Use the cable in the box, too many inferior T3 cables out there. Update: I can confirm this does work with the 2020 iPad Pro 11 inch. I tried the Sabrent NvME but the ipad would not recognize it, iPad does not support thunderbolt 3. So far the tough nano is the fastest small portable drive that works with the iPad. I dont even need a hub because I plug in an SD card reader, the SanDisk UHS-II and I can capture a 2 GB video file (300MB/s sandisk card) in 7 seconds. BTW, the SanDisk SD to USB-C card reader is the fastest out there in my tests So get it. I dont see any need for a Gnarbox box anymore. I capture from the SD card onto my iPad Pro because I have a 1 TB of storage. I can dump from the iPad back to the Caldigit tuff nano if I need to. But that process is slow, if you wanna dump 230 GB from the iPad to the Caldigit tuff nano it will take about three hours. Not sure why the process is so slow going out from the iPad. But I still have the originals on the cards and a copy on my iPad, thats good enough for me. Im liking this tuff nano more and more especially as the prices drop.

Todays newer computers with SSDs are much more expensive the larger the drive. This is very sturdy drive that come in a case that fits it and its cable snugly. Heats up when in use, but not an issue. Saves money with this over purchasing a computer with larger drive. Good storing data that is not only use occasionally.

This is used in conjunction with both an iPad Pro and a MacBook Pro. Large 200+ bitrate video files are a breeze to transfer and it is easily possible to edit leaving the files on the Nano. The main advantage is tiny size for ultimate portability.

If you are trying to purchase this to use as a storage upgrade for the Surface Pro 8 or surface pro X beware that the drive inside is NOT m.2 2230. It looks like a 2280 or something else but definitely not 2230. Other than that the drive is fast, durable and made extremely well.

Works well with my 2020 IPad Pro and MacBook Air, Comes with USB-C and USB cables.

I have the caldigit element hub and this product made by the same company isnt compatible. It will read the hard drive if I connect it directly to the computer but wont recognize it plugged into the hub. My other drives have no problem being read once its connected to the hub. Horrible that their own products arent compatible with each other.

Working beyond my expectations on this product.

this is super durable and fast hard drive. it works fine for me for photos and is very sturdy and lightweight and easy to transport. very compact and nice looking too. have had no issues accessing the drive so it seems reliable so far. no idea why one of the items to rate is warmth, but it doesnt seem to get too hot so I guess thats a plus? kind of a weird thing to have to rate. I like it. also I had a coupon so it was extra great value but I like it enough that t I will buy another for backups.