Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Good 10Gbps efficiency
- Super svelte and handy retractable Type-C design
- Affordable for the efficiency
Our Verdict
The PNY Pro Elite V3’s intelligent, retractable design makes it one in every of my favourite 10Gbps USB sticks. It’s solely the third quickest I’ve examined, however the superlative type issue makes it the one I’ll throw in my pocket for mild to medium workloads.
Price When Reviewed
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Best Pricing Today
USB sticks are not the slowish commodity merchandise they as soon as have been. Utilizing the quick 10Gbps USB 3.2 protocol, Type-C connectors, and NVMe internals they’re now extra akin to what we name exterior SSDs than these dime-a-dozen thumb drives of the previous.
While not the quickest (it’s nonetheless quick) such beastie I’ve examined, the PNY Pro Elite V3’s elegant retractable design and uber-small form-factor received me over. At least for on a regular basis workloads — it’s not the perfect for super-large file transfers.
Read on to study extra, then see our roundup of the best external drives for comparability.
What are the PNY Pro Elite V3’s options?
The Pro Elite V3 is a diminutive 10Gbps USB thumb drive that’s roughly 2.5-inches lengthy, 0.75-inches broad, and 0.4-inches thick. It’s a two-part affair.
The major physique marries the grippy, textured headpiece (with a lanyard attachment level) and the Type-C connector. A somewhat beefy, captive sleeve slides away from the headpiece to cowl/defend the Type-C connector, and slides in the direction of that headpiece to disclose it to be used.
Unlike many retractable designs, the place a swap, lever, or some such is used to push the connector out of the principle physique of the gadget, the one-piece Pro Elite V3 isn’t finicky torture to insert. We prefer it.
Also, the protecting sleeve being captive means there’s nothing to lose or hold observe of apart from the drive itself. If it looks as if I’m a bit aglow over the Pro Elite V3’s design, it’s due to the various oaths I’ve uttered through the years on account of ill-conceived retractable mechanisms and misplaced thumb drive caps.
Though I’m not aware about the precise controller/bridge chip, the internals of the Pro Elite V3 are clearly NVMe — the drive’s efficiency exceeds something SATA is able to. Also, the way in which the drive slowed to 280MBps in the course of the 450GB write take a look at reminds us of some older TLC.
That mentioned, 280MBps is a bit quicker than the 75MBps to 150MBps write charges we usually see with QLC written natively, i.e. with out write-as-SLC secondary caching.
PNY warranties the drive for 2 years, nevertheless it’s a restricted promise. We’re guessing the same old {qualifications} abrogate it: extreme bodily injury or an excessive amount of information written. PNY declined to supply a flat-out TBW (terabytes that could be written) ranking, however typically, this ranking is anyplace from 250TBW per TB of capability for QLC to 600TBW for TLC.
Note that most individuals don’t write practically as a lot information as they assume they do — the Pro Elite V3 ought to give you might have an extended and productive lifespan.
How a lot is the PNY Pro Elite V3?
The PNY Pro Elite V3 is on the market in 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB (examined) capacities for $32, $53, $84, and $152, respectively. That’s 12 cents, 10 cents, 8.4 cents, and 7.6 cents per gigabyte — not an enormous unfold so far as this stuff go.
Compared to the like-performing competitors you’ll see listed within the charts, pricing is just about a wash — i.e., they’re all priced equally.
How quick is the PNY Pro Elite V3?
While efficiency isn’t fairly on par general with the SK Hynix’s Tube T31 or Seagate’s Ultra Compact SSD, the PNY Pro Elite V3 is shut and turned in excellent numbers. Far higher than its V2 predecessor.
Note that the Teamgroup X1 Max truly carried out much better after we restricted CrystalDiskMark 8’s information set to 16GiB. However, our customary requires the 64GiB exams in order that’s what the X1 Max was caught with — like all the opposite drives within the charts. Also, the PNY Pro Elite V2 was a 256GB drive, and due to this fact unable to take part within the 450GB.
The PNY Pro Elite V3 was once more a bit slower than its two prime opponents in CrystalDiskMark 8’s random 4K exams.
Again, whereas the PNY Pro Elite V3 is quick, it wasn’t fairly as quick because the Tube T31 or Ultra Compact SSD in our 48GB switch exams.
The PNY Pro Elite V3 actually fell off the tempo within the 450GB write, barely edging out the Corsair Survivor Stealth which is extra about climate resistance than efficiency. Again, the Pro Elite V2 was solely 256GB and unable to retailer a 450GB file — therefore the absence of a time.
Below you’ll be able to see the slowdown because the PNY Pro Elite V3 ran out of secondary cache in pretty quick order throughout our 450GB write take a look at. This native write velocity probably means older TLC or some form of new, quicker QLC. Modern TLC NAND triple this native write charge, whereas all of the QLC we’ve examined is round 100MBps or extra slower.
While not fairly the quickest of the 10Gbps USB stick litter, the Pro Elite V3 is loads quick sufficient for on a regular basis duties.
Should you purchase the PNY Pro Elite V3?
The PNY Pro Elite V3 is third in step with the already mentioned opponents providing round 10 % extra velocity general and much better large-file efficiency. However, the PNY Pro Elite V3’s svelte, super-convenient design makes it the one we’d most certainly throw in a pocket for regular, on a regular basis chores.
When purchasing, as you’ll be able to inform from the charts above… Make very positive you’re shopping for and receiving V3, not the far slower V2.
How we take a look at
Our storage exams at present make the most of Windows 11 (22H2) 64-bit operating on an X790 (PCIe 5.0) motherboard/i5-12400 CPU combo with two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 modules (64GB of reminiscence complete). Intel built-in graphics are used. The 48GB switch exams make the most of an ImDisk RAM disk taking over 58GB of the 64GB complete reminiscence. The 450GB file is transferred from a Samsung 990 Pro 2TB, which additionally accommodates the working system.
Each take a look at is carried out on a newly formatted and TRIM’d drive so the outcomes are optimum. Note that as any drive fills up, efficiency will lower on account of much less NAND for secondary caching, and different elements.
The efficiency numbers proven apply solely to the drive we have been shipped in addition to the capability examined. SSD efficiency can range by capability on account of extra or fewer chips to learn/write throughout and the quantity of NAND out there for secondary caching (writing TLC/QLC as SLC). Vendors additionally often swap parts. If you ever discover a big discrepancy between the efficiency you expertise and that which we report (programs being roughly equal), by all means—tell us.