Western Digital My Passport SSD – now up to 4TB (WD storage review)

17/07/2022
By Ray Shaw
In Reviews

The Western Digital My Passport SSD has been around for a while but is still ‘kicking but’ as one of the fastest USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) capable external SSDs.

It has grown since release and now has models including 500GB, 1, 2, and 4TB and blazes along nicely at around 1Gigabye per second (1000MBps) sequential read/write speeds. That is close to the 10Gbps (1250MBps) maximum limit of USB-C 3.2 Gen 2.

Australian Review: Western Digital My Passport SSD (Model WDBAGF)

Website	Product Page
Price	500GB – $169 (34 cents per GB) 1TB – $209 (21 cents per GB) 2TB – $349 (17 cents per GB) 4TB TBA
From	Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, Good Guys, Officeworks, Bing Lee and online at Amazon WD store and Harris Technology
Warranty	5-years limited
Company	Western Digital (WD) is an American computer hard disk drive manufacturer and data storage company headquartered in San Jose, California. It designs, manufactures and sells data technology products, including storage devices, data centre systems and cloud storage services.
More	CyberShack Western Digital news and reviews

We use Fail (below expectations), Pass (meets expectations) and Exceed (surpasses expectations or is the class leader) against many of the items below. We occasionally give a Pass ‘+’ rating to show it is good but does not quite make it to Exceed.

First impression – Pass+

Small, Light, like a thin bar of soap. It is 100 x 55 x 9mm x 46g. It comes in Silver, Gold, Grey, Red, and Blue (depending on capacity).

What I really like is the 2m drop resistance – it has a metal case and it comes with a USB-C to USB-C 3,.2 cable and a USB-C to USB-A converter (speeds are lower on earlier versions of USB. You can also run it directly off Thunderbolt 3 or 4 ports.

Tests – Exceed

Crystal Disk Mark sequential read/write was 1076.28/972.09MBps.

It did pretty well on larger data transfers too.

Fast Facts

Interface: USB 3.2 Gen 2 (Thunderbolt 3 compatible and USB backwards compatible at lower speeds)
Format: exFAT but can format for any OS
Size: 100 × 55 2× 9mmx x 47g
Box: USB-C to USB-C 170mm cable and USB-C to USB-A adapter
Theoretical Seq R/W: 1050/1000MBps
Optional 256-bit AES encryption on the fly
Drop-resistant 1.98m
Includes WD Discovery Software for backup and passwords
Warranty: 5 years

CyberShack’s view – Western Digital My Passport SSD is one of the better external SSDs

Yes, there are heaps of generic SSDs, but WD’s 5-year limited warranty and Discovery Software make this an excellent choice.

In other tests, it outperforms similar USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 devices (although not by much) including Samsung T7 and s comparable to WD’s Black P50 WD Black P50 SSD – seriously fast (Western Digital review).