Guidemaster: The best portable SSDs you can buy right now

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Portable SSDs are a good way to increase the amount of storage you have to preserve digital data and take that data with you wherever you go. These powerful accessories let you pack a huge amount of storage in your daily bag, giving you a place where you can offload files from your computer or smartphone, access files you only need in certain circumstances, and backup important information on the go.

But the world of portable SSDs is a large one, and choosing the best device for your needs can be a challenge. It's not just about how small the device is, how durable it is, or how many gigabytes of storage it has-the speed of a portable SSD can heavily influence your satisfaction with it. SSDs in general promise better read and write speeds than HDDs, so you'll see a general increase if you're going from one to the other. However, not all portable SSDs perform the same-even if they advertise similar maximum speeds.

To help you decide which portable SSD might work for you, Ars put some of the newest and most popular portable SSDs on the market to the test and judged them on speed, design, durability, compatibility, and price. Here are our findings:

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