• Corsair Memory and others show off USB 4 portable SSDs at CES 2025
• USB 4 is as fast as Thunderbolt 3/4 and twice as fast as USB 3.2 Gen2x2
• It allows for far more demanding storage requirements like 8K RAW storage

Working with a slow SSD can be highly frustrating – but luckily there are a range of solutions to the problem on the horizon.

A host of manufacturers demoed USB 4 portable drives at CES 2025, giving us a tantalizing glimpse at a future without sluggish USB 3.2 SSDs, and among the most eye-catching of these was a teaser for the new EX400U SSD from Corsair.

This nifty piece of hardware boasts a 40Gbps USB 4 interface and comes in a 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB format. According to Corsair, the new SSD offers 4,000MB/s sequential read speeds, along with 3.600MB/s write speeds.

Why USB 4 is the way forward

Elsewhere, Adata made a big announcement with the launch of the new XPG SE940 portable SSD, marking the first time the storage firm has harnessed USB 4 technology in its product roster.

This powerful piece of kit can reach sequential read and write speeds of up to 4,000 MB/s. Notably, this not only makes the SE940 the fastest portable drive in the company’s lineup, but as TechRadar Pro recently noted, one of the top-performing products on the external storage market.

But in an industry awash with marketing jargon and grandiose claims, does USB 4 really live up to the hype?

First announced in 2019, USB 4 heralded a new standard of connectivity – and it’s certainly lived up to expectations so far. In terms of bandwidth, USB 4 offers up to 4oGbps, making it twice as fast as USB 3.2 (Gen2x2) and on-part with Thunderbolt 3 and 4 connections.

That’s a significant boost in capacity when dealing with transfers. Especially when one considers the increasingly bulky datasets organizations and everyday users now contend with.

USB 3.2’s performance capabilities – or lack thereof- have been particularly evident when dealing with storage and transferal of 8K data files, for example.

There’s been a steady flow of devices, particularly SSDs, released of late that utilize USB 4, but given the focus at CES 2025, hopefully this develops into a torrent in the year ahead.

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