Just last year, Kingston has started their foray into fast external SSD storage with the XS2000 solution, and till this day we still find it as a fast and reliable storage, especially if you need to just transfer files around fast and at a stable rate. Suffice to say, in the time we are at now is all about the affordable concerns and Kingston has a solution on this, by releasing the XS1000, an External USB SSD that still perform similarly, with some corners cut.
Unboxing
The XS1000 came with the following as below
- The XS1000 SSD
- USB A to C Cable
Features & Design
A several features that stands out on the XS1000 is the small size of the SSD, measuring only 69.54 x 32.58 x 13.5mm with weight of less than 29 grams, this is so easy to carry, that if you wish to put it in your pocket or bag, its up to you. The whole enclosure design is made of metal and plastic, which dissipates heat fast and yet at the same time, durable and reliable by just using a USB A to C cable to connect to your PC, Laptops, Android or Mac. It can support up to USB 3.2 Gen 2 connection interface which gives read and write speeds up to 1000Mb/sec, which is blazing fast provided if you have the interface on your system, or otherwise it is also compatible with USB C 3.x also as long you have the cable to connect it, which in fact gives flexibility on the choice, however do take note if your USB specs is lower, the speeds will go lower, but judging this is an external SSD, you still enjoy an average of 500mb/sec on USB 3.x specs, minimum on modern systems. The XS1000 came in 2 sizes of storage, 1TB and 2TB size.
Test System & Benchmarking Performance
We will be using the following as our test setup, the HONOR Magicbook 2022 which we think this is suited for a portable transfer scenario.
| System | HONOR Magicbook 2022 (RTX Version) |
| Processor | Intel Core i5 12th Generation 12500H |
| Memory | 16GB LPDDR5 4800Mhz |
| Motherboard | GLO-FX6P Board |
| Graphics | GeForce RTX 2050 Mobile 4GB |
| Storage (Boot) | Generic 512GB NVME |
| Storage | – |
| Storage (Network) | – |
Above is the results we obtained from our USB C 3.x port test, and we are truly satisfied with it as the combination of the XS2000 and our test system really uses up our motherboard limited speed capability up to 1000MB reads and write which is technically accurate with also really fast access timing. So if you are using the newer USB 3.2 Gen 2, you definitely can get up to the 1000MB read and write speeds, or at least very near to it.
Technical Specifications
| Controller | SMI 2320 |
| NAND | 3D NAND |
| Capacities | 1TB, 2TB |
| Sequential Read/Write | up to 1,050/1,000MB/s |
Verdict & Conclusion
The Kingston XS1000 External SSD retains the best of the form factor and size derived from the XS2000 SSD, and surely this SSD does brings in fast, good value for the money on storage, especially speeds you can get coupled with it’s portability ever so light and small, that you can fit it anywhere you wanted. The only thing being cut is the 20Gbps speeds, but to the majority, 10Gbps is more than enough for backup, read and write access on a daily usage, in fact this is also good for those who wanted to use it as a portable game storage for your Steam library, especially now a these days, Handheld PC’s are getting popular and this could be a good choice to carry all the additional games with you without reinstalling your games, just plug and play.
The Kingston XS1000 External SSD is now selling at RM336 for 1TB and RM585 for 2TB at the point of this writing via Lazada and Shopee for the 1TB unit.
Special Thanks to Kingston on providing us the review unit.