DPReview by Dale Baskin

Mobile Speed: Portable SSDs for photographers & videographers

No surprise here, the new Glyph Atom & Atom RAID are the stars of this review. When it comes to combining speed, connectivity, ruggedness, form factor and performance they are at the top of their class. You can read the full review here. Glyph Atom and Atom RAID

The Atom and Atom RAID from Glyph Technologies are a bit heavier than the other SSDs in this article, but that simply reflects their build quality. These things are solid. Really solid. As in, I'm pretty sure I could run over them with my car and they would still work, solid. Both are enclosed in a very sturdy aluminum housing which is encased in a rubber sleeve to add some shock protection.

The Atoms are also the only SSDs in this article that feature support for USB 3.1, Gen 2. In a nutshell, this means they have twice the theoretical maximum data transfer rate of the other devices in this article (10 Gbps vs. 5 Gbps). The Atom comes in a candy bar shaped case similar in size to the OWC Envoy Pro EX.

The Glyph Atom is one of the most solid portable drives I've ever come across and is a great fit for serious production use where things get banged around a lot.

The Atom RAID includes two SSDs in a RAID 0 configuration to provide even greater speed when transferring data, and it can deliver. Physically, it's about 50% wider than the standard Atom and a bit heavier, but otherwise similar in design.

The Glyph Atom RAID is every bit as solid as the Atom, but includes two SSDs in a RAID 0 configuration for even more speed.

Both Atom devices use a USB-C connection and ship with native USB-C to USB-C cables as well as USB-C to USB-A cables. It's a nice touch that Glyph provides cables for both types of connections out of the box. My only complaint about the design is that the LED status light on these drives is bright enough to illuminate the corner of a room in the dark.

The Atom and Atom RAID are hands-down the most durable SSDs I've tried, and the ones I would choose for a production environment where they get used, abused, and banged around every day. I've been using them non-stop for several weeks, shoving them in and out of bags with other gear, and am consistently impressed with how rugged they are. Whether the additional speed of the RAID model is justified depends on your requirements, but it's there if you need it.

The Atom is available in capacities of 275GB ($129), 525GB ($229), and 1TB ($399). The Atom RAID is available in capacities of 1TB ($419) and 2TB ($819). You pay a bit of a premium for the RAID version, but if you need the speed it will probably cost you one way or another. read more...