WD My Passport 2020 Review: Fast, Portable, And Offer Great Value For Money

WD my passport 2020 has been revamped with a new design, a more affordable price, and enhanced internal components.

However, the upgrades might not be enough for the portable solid-state drive to stand out as the market has changed so much since its launch in 2017. Many vendors show no hesitation to slash the price to create a competitive edge.

WD My Passport Price

There are two versions of My Passport, the My Passport Go – launched in 2017, and WDBAGF released in 2020.

Users have the choice to acquire the portable SSD in three different capacities, 2TB, 1TB, and 500GB, and four colors, including grey silver, champagne gold, red, and blue.

The base model of WD my passport 2020 is sold for $107.99 (Rs. 7,900). The one with 1TB is retailed for $149.99 (Rs. 5,799) while the one with 2TB will set you back $359.99 (Rs. 6,920).

In this WD My Passport 2020 review, we have at hand the 1TB version.

WD My Passport Design

When you first pick up the drive, the first thing you will notice is its light weight, the second is how thin it is. The portable SSD measures 10x5.5x0.9cm and weighs 46g.

WD my passport 2020 can resists shock to a certain degree and has a ridged enclosure that the company advertises as looking sleek and bold.

The design has done a good job improving grip and minimizing damage, thanks to the curved design.

Out of the box, the drive comes with a Type-A to Type-C converter, a Type-C to Type-C cable, a Type-C connector. There is no light whatsoever to tell users if the drive is in use, which is an odd choice of omission.

WD My Passport Specs

Under the hood, the drive features a SanDisk 20-82-10023 controller, SanDisk BiCS 4 96L 3D TLC flash memory, a PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe drive, and an ASMedia ASM2362.

WD my passport 2020 can have up to 2TB and go to 2.4GBps.

In Use

When in use, the drive gets hotter than we expected.

We were able to reach the claimed 1GB and 1.05GBps and write and read speeds with CrystalDiskMark – the most popular storage benchmark available to us.

We achieved similar results with other benchmarks but when we transfer a 10GB file, the process was slower than we expected. That came as a surprise even if we factor in the file systems and the OS.

WD my passport 2020 comes with WD Discovery – the storage software for Mac and Windows. It allows you to install and control apps, including WD Backup and WD Drive.

WD Backup might come in handy for many users as it lets users save data to the portable SSD and independent cloud storage.

With WD Security, the drive can be protected with 256-bit AES hardware encryption and password.

The Competition

WD My Passport 2020 has a possible competitor coming at a more expensive price of $190, which is the SanDisk Extreme Pro. It comes with encryption and a five-year warranty. The SanDisk drive has an IP55 rating, making it an alternative to My Passport.

Another candidate for the competition is Adata SE800, which is fully waterproof and has an eye-appealing color scheme. The price for the 1TB option is lower than that of the My Passport.

WD My Passport vs WD Elements

If you want more than 4TB, the obvious choice is the WD Elements. Otherwise, the WD My Passport 2020 with USB 3.1 Gen 2 compatibility and faster speed seems to be a better investment.

The differences in weight and size are minor so they won’t affect the buying decision. If you care a lot about the look of the drive, you will have a lot more color options, 6 in particular, with My Passport.

Final Verdict

So if you are on the market for a fast and compact portable SSD with a long warranty, you can’t go wrong with the WD My Passport 2020.

The only thing that comes in between you and the drive is the price tag that is significantly higher than many other competitors on the market.

Some other minor disadvantages are the heat and the short cable length. However, if you want a balance of price and performance, this portable SSD is still the ideal option over the two aforementioned competitors, the SanDisk Extreme Pro and the Adata SE800.

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