SanDisk’s New ‘Plug-and-Stay’ 1TB SSD Is Absurdly Tiny

SanDisk’s new Extreme Fit 1TB USB-C Flash Drive is its smallest, highest-capacity USB-C flash drive to date. The Extreme Fit is so small that SanDisk calls it a “plug and stay” drive, meaning that users can keep it semi-permanently attached to their device.

Before diving into the SanDisk Extreme Fit, it is worth mentioning that despite new branding, SanDisk is not far removed from major issues with its portable SSD products, which led PetaPixel to stop recommending the company’s products. While those issues remain on mind here, many people use and love SanDisk products and will not hesitate to buy more, so PetaPixel continues to cover SanDisk’s most notable product launches, albeit with the caveat above.

With that disclaimer out of the way, the SanDisk Extreme Fit is impressively compact. The 1TB SSD weighs a mere 3 grams (0.1 ounces) and is just 18.5 x 13.7 x 16 millimeters (0.7 x 0.5 x 0.6 inches). The SSD’s USB-C connector is about as long as the Extreme Fit is thick.

“Plug-and-stay USB-C storage has never been so petite,” SanDisk claims.

“The Extreme Fit is just a little bigger than the wireless dongle for my Logitech mouse,” writes Dominic Preston for The Verge.

The SanDisk Extreme Fit is compatible with macOS and Windows laptops, although admittedly, its garish design doesn’t quite match Apple’s aesthetics.

As expected, some compromises come with such aggressive miniaturization of storage. As is often the case with teeny-tiny SSDs, the Extreme Fit is not fast. The drive uses USB 3.2 Gen 1 technology, delivering maximum transfer speeds of up to 400 MB/s for all capacities except the smallest 64GB one, which is even slower. These speeds should be perfectly fine for moving photos and videos around, but are insufficient to use the Extreme Fit as a working drive for video editing.

Those who require faster portable SSDs have plenty of fantastic options, although admittedly none of them are anywhere near as small as the SanDisk Extreme Fit. For a faster flash drive designed for direct device connection, the new Seagate Ultra Compact SSD offers speeds of nearly 900 MB/s.

The SanDisk Extreme Fit USB-C Flash Drive is available now, starting at just $14.99 for the 64GB model. The largest capacity variant, the 1TB drive, is on sale for $109.99.


Image credits: SanDisk