Sony is targeting creative professionals like photographers and videographers with the introduction of two new external drives. Available as a high performance model and a standard compact flavor, the external SSDs boast impressively fast read/write speeds, hardware encryption, are impact-proof and sealed against damaging water and dust.
Both the SL-M (high performance) and SL-C (standard compact) series SSDs come wrapped in a shockproof one-piece aluminum body that's IP67-rated against water and dust ingress. And there's a USB Type C port cap that keeps out the water too.
Sony says that the external drives can survive drops from up to 9 feet (2.75 m), and even if a clumsy creative pro accidentally dropped them into the drink, data will be safe stored at depths of up to 3 feet (0.9 m). They can withstand pressure of 6,000 kgf and bending of up to 2,000 kgf, which means you don't have to be particularly careful when packing them in gear boxes along with other equipment.
Perhaps even more impressive than their rugged appeal, the SL-M drive can read and write up to 1,000 MB/s, with the SL-C transferring data a little slower at up to 540 MB/s read and 520 MB/s write. And users can utilize AES 256-bit hardware encryption without loss of transfer speed.
Dual password protection is also offered courtesy of a companion app, which also has a built-in Lifetime Checker feature that keeps tabs on the condition and remaining capacity of the SSD. Drive owners can set user-level passwords, and there's no need to worry about having to unlock the drive on the same kind of system that was used to secure it, as there's cross platform compatibility.
The SL-M and SL-C drives will go on sale in the middle of the year, and will be available in 500 GB, 1 TB and 2 TB storage capacities. Pricing has not yet been announced.
Source: Sony