Apacer AS721 AP250GAS721B-1 250 GB

Laconic appearance

If you need an inexpensive and at the same time strong external SSD that is not afraid to accidentally drop it or arrange it in a backpack or bag, then pay attention to the AS721 model from Apacer. The metal casing of this drive has passed a series of US Army tests and received MIL-STD-810G 516.6 certification, which guarantees the safety of data on the drive from accidental bumps and drops. Also inside the case there is a special frame to reduce vibration during operation.

Fits easily into your pocket

Weighing only 57 grams, 122 mm long and 12 mm thick, the AS721 fits easily into a jacket pocket, backpack or bag side compartment. While it's far from the smallest external SSD on the market, it's still smaller than your average smartphone and closer in size to a standard plastic credit card. The design turned out to be extremely minimalistic, in fact it is a monophonic oblong pencil case with a minimum of identification marks on the body. And inside the case there is a drive board with a controller and memory modules.

Speed is ok

As for the technical data, then there are no surprises. Despite using the USB-C 3.2 gen2 bus, the AS721's rated speeds are slightly over 500MB/s. This is the standard room temperature for most low-cost SSDs. In reality, it all depends on the connected device, installed drivers, buffer fullness, as well as the number and size of copied files. In tests close to reality, when it was necessary to write several 4K movies to the SSD, the non-linear recording speed was in the region of 208 – 236 MB / s. In the case of reverse copying, the speedometer bar rises one and a half to two times, reaching 423 MB / s.