Kingston debuts its Red Dot Design Award-winning XS1000R USB 3.2 Gen 2 external solid-state drive. I test out the tiny storage drive.

There was a time when I’d take the extraordinary read/write speeds quoted on storage drive marketing material with a pinch of salt. The drives would usually be fast, but not that fast. Fast enough for the casual user (or reviewer for that matter) to still be happy and dismiss the claimed speed as just outrageous hyperbole. My view, however, is that if it says this is the speed you are supposed to get, that is what I expect to achieve (and without messing about).

Kingston’s XS1000R External SSD packaging states up to 1050MB/s read and 1000MB/s write speeds. These are phenomenal data transfer speeds, about 10x faster than my aging SATA hard drives. But this is a USB 3.2 Gen 2 SSD, and to achieve those amazing speeds you will need a device with USB 3.2 Gen 2 capabilities. Of course, the Kingston SSD is backwards compatible, so you can use it with older devices, you’ll just not achieve those top speeds.

In the box you get the drive, we were sent the 2TB version (a 1TB version is also available), which has a USB Type-C output and a blue data access LED light. The included USB Type-C to Type-A cable has a Type-A to Type-C converter making it compatible with most devices.

The XS1000R drive is small, a quarter of the size of portable SSDs a year ago. But with memory technology getting exponentially smaller, it makes sense for portable SSDs to follow suit. The metal and plastic chassis is very light and feels a bit empty like the size is for practical reasons rather than down to the components inside. I think it’s only a matter of time before portable drives are the size of a dongle and easily lost in your pocket- which may be why the small device feels bigger than it needs to be.

The drive looks smart, available in black or the snazzy metallic red colour of our review sample. There are option rubber housings available to protect the drive should you need something a little more rugged.

I tested the drive on a few devices. My 2024 Asus Zenbook 14 was able to take full advantage of the XS1000R’s USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds achieving a maximum read speed of 1060MB/s and a write speed of 961MB/s in Crystal DiskMark, both impressive speeds, matching that of the marketing.

Testing the drive with the front panel of my desktop PC was not as good, the speeds were half that of the Zenbook. Reaching for my motherboard manual, it seems that only the USB sockets on the rear I/O panel are USB 3.2 Gen 2 compatible. The rest being USB 3.2 Gen 1 (i.e. 5Gbps rather than the 10Gbps of USB 3.2 Gen 2), explained the 460MB/s transfer speed. Using the rear USB port, the drive reached the maximum stated data transfer speeds, once more.

For a more real-world test, I transferred a couple of video files from an SSD in my PC to the Kingston external drive. I transferred a 1.7GB file in 10 seconds and a 13.9GB in 1 minute 23 seconds. Very handy if you need to quickly back up a file to take with you.

The data transfer speeds of the XS1000R SSD on the box are correct, but you’ll need to have the equipment to achieve 1000MB/s, and even then, the transfer speeds will depend on where you are transferring the data from (i.e. the OTHER drive needs to be just as fast if you are not saving from RAM). It’s worth checking your equipment to set expectations. With most modern PCs you will get a good result.

The Kingston XS1000R 2TB external SSD is a high-performance portable storage solution offering a high capacity in a tiny form factor no bigger than a cigarette lighter. The drive’s high capacity and fast data transfer speeds make it very handy for storing and transferring essential data on the go.