Seagate Ultra Compact SSD review: Not your parents’ flash drive

Best Prices Today: Seagate Ultra Compact SSD

There’s no lie to Seagate calling its new product the Ultra Compact SSD. In truth, that’s what all USB thumb drives are, and the Ultra Compact SSD is a thumb drive both in appearance and functionality.

The point to the fancy moniker, however, is to distinguish this product from the old, slow thumb drives that might otherwise come to mind. The 10Gbps Ultra Compact SSD is fast — the second-fastest such drive we’ve tested.

Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best external drives for comparison.

What are the Seagate Ultra Compact SSD’s features?

The fact that I’m calling the Ultra Compact SSD a thumb drive should tell you most of what you need to know about the drive’s shape and appearance. But as I’m paid for such things… It’s rectangular and measures around 2.75-inches long, 0.75 inches wide, and 0.40-inches thick. Weight is about 0.8 ounces.

The end cap for the Type-C connector is a bit thicker and wider than the body, and consists primarily of silicone. A matching silicone jacket is provided as seen in the photo up top.

I preferred the drive with only the end cap in place — in my opinion, the jacket is an overkill addition that will trap heat. SSDs are tough beasts by nature, and don’t need a lot of external shock protection.

Also, the end cap alone provides all the protection from the elements that the connector needs. To me, it also looks best with only the end cap. You might agree. You might not. Life is like that.

Seagate warranties the Ultra Compact SSD for three years, but no mitigating TBW rating (terabytes that may be written) is provided. Assuming normal use, you should not have warranty issues in that regard.

Upon registration, Seagate will give you a 6-month Dropbox Backup Plan and 6-month Mylio Photos subscription. In most countries the Ultra Compact SSD is also eligible for free data recovery. Cool, though never needing this would be ideal.

How much does the Seagate Ultra Compact SSD cost?

The Ultra Compact SSD ships in 1TB and 2TB capacities, which retail for $100 and $180 respectively. However, there was a promotion for $80 and $145 at launch, which should still be in effect if you’re reading this article as it publishes.

How fast is the Seagate Ultra Compact SSD?

The Seagate Ultra Compact SSD turned in very good 10Gbps-like numbers for a small thumb drive, if not quite up to those we saw from the most excellent SK Hynix Tube T31.

The Seagate Ultra Compact SSD also turned in a good performance in CrystalDiskMark 8’s random 4K tests. Although again, second to the Tube T31.

The Seagate Ultra Compact SSD easily bested the Corsair Flash Survivor Stealth, an older but still viable 10Gbps thumb drive. But once again, finished behind the Tube T31.

The 450GB write turned out to be another feather for the Ultra Compact SSD, if not as large as feather as that earned by the Tube T31. Yes, it’s getting repetitive.

Overall, I’m impressed by the Seagate Ultra Compact SSD’s performance. It’s the second-fastest thumb drive I’ve tested and easily fast enough for the average user.

Should you buy the Seagate Ultra Compact SSD?

While not quite the performer the Tube T31 is, the extras provided by Seagate such as free data recovery, Dropbox, and Mylio make it arguably the better deal. Either way, these are not your parents’ thumb drives.

How we test

Drive tests currently utilize Windows 11, 64-bit running on an X790 (PCIe 4.0/5.0) motherboard/i5-12400 CPU combo with two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 4800MHz modules (64GB of memory total). Both 20Gbps USB and Thunderbolt 4 are integrated to the back panel and Intel CPU/GPU graphics are used. The 48GB transfer tests utilize an ImDisk RAM disk taking up 58GB of the 64GB of total memory. The 450GB file is transferred from a 2TB Samsung 990 Pro which also runs the OS.

Each test is performed on a newly NTFS-formatted and TRIM’d drive so the results are optimal. Note that in normal use, as a drive fills up, performance may decrease due to less NAND for secondary caching, as well as other factors. This can be less of a factor with the current crop of SSDs with far faster late-generation NAND.

Caveat: The performance numbers shown apply only to the drive we were shipped and to the capacity tested. SSD performance can and will vary by capacity due to more or fewer chips to shotgun reads/writes across and the amount of NAND available for secondary caching. Vendors also occasionally swap components. If you ever notice a large discrepancy between the performance you experience and that which we report, by all means, let us know.