The “Connection Machine” 

In the zone

Platform politics

Range life

Not dystopian

It’s easier to talk about the areas of life that AI won’t affect than where it will. Businesses are at the forefront of that adoption. But where businesses go, bad actors often follow – sometimes, they’re even ahead.

Whilst Gen AI is being used positively amongst businesses, speeding up admin tasks and acting as an assistant to many, it has already gotten into the ‘wrong hands’. More and more Gen AI offerings are available on the dark web to assist wanna-be hackers and bad actors in their endeavours. The commodification of AI can help cybercriminals make phishing attacks seem more personable and realistic, which can increase the likelihood of successful intrusions that could lead to ransomware attacks. Ransomware is one of the biggest threats to businesses today, putting businesses, reputations and careers at risk, and it is here to stay.

The ‘Amaravati Drone Summit 2024’ provided the perfect platform for Andhra Pradesh to highlight the successful use of drone technology during the recent floods that ravaged Vijayawada and surrounding areas. 

AP Drone Corporation Managing Director, K. Dinesh Kumar, presented a comprehensive case study detailing the key role that drones played in the state’s flood disaster management and relief efforts.

Responding to the disaster, the state deployed 437 drones which completed 4000 trips. The exercise was undertaken by 846 skilled professionals. Drones became essential for real-time flood mapping, allowing authorities to monitor inundated areas and assess damage with speed and precision. 

The state’s emergency response teams relied heavily on drone footage for quick decision-making, especially focusing on low-lying areas. According to the state government, a control room was established at the NTR District Collectorate, where 20 operators monitored live drone feeds from 22 flood-affected wards, identifying critical issues like crowd distress, garbage piles, dead animals and sanitation problems.

Over a six-day period, the drones delivered more than 1,23,731 relief packages to flood victims. On peak days, such as September 4, drones made as many as 80,630 deliveries. Not stopping at just that, 100 sanitation drones were deployed to spray 3,078 litres of disinfectant over 284 Km of flood-affected areas to prevent the outbreak of diseases.

The state leveraged Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) for data analytics by processing information gathered from drone surveillance. Andhra Pradesh also launched a sandbox initiative that offered startups access to drone-collected data to create innovative solutions for disaster management. The Amaravati Drone Summit attracted over 11,000 attendees including 4,000 participants and 62 experts who doubled up as panel speakers.

Visuals of inundated roads and people trapped in houses crying for help dominated news channels and social media after the floods hit the southern state. The Krishna River was overwhelmed, resulting in the worst floods in the last 100 years. Rainfall of over 32 cm was recorded between August 31 and September 1 which displaced over 200,000 people. The floods also paralyzed transportation systems and crippled infrastructure as many commercial establishments were inundated by knee-deep water. 

The New York Times has introduced the next title coming to its Games catalog following Wordle’s continued success — and it’s all about math. Digits has players adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing numbers. You can play its beta for free online right now. 
In Digits, players are presented with a target number that they need to match. Players are given six numbers and have the ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide them to get as close to the target as they can. Not every number needs to be used, though, so this game should put your math skills to the test as you combine numbers and try to make the right equations to get as close to the target number as possible.

Players will get a five-star rating if they match the target number exactly, a three-star rating if they get within 10 of the target, and a one-star rating if they can get within 25 of the target number. Currently, players are also able to access five different puzzles with increasingly larger numbers as well.  I solved today’s puzzle and found it to be an enjoyable number-based game that should appeal to inquisitive minds that like puzzle games such as Threes or other The New York Times titles like Wordle and Spelling Bee.
In an article unveiling Digits and detailing The New York Time Games team’s process to game development, The Times says the team will use this free beta to fix bugs and assess if it’s worth moving into a more active development phase “where the game is coded and the designs are finalized.” So play Digits while you can, as The New York Times may move on from the project if it doesn’t get the response it is hoping for. 
Digits’ beta is available to play for free now on The New York Times Games’ website

After months of leaks and rumors, OPPO finally launched the Find X8 and Find X8 Pro in China today. These flagship devices boast some high-end specs, impressive cameras, and a fresh design. Now, let’s talk about these smartphones in detail.

The OPPO Find X8 series launched with MediaTek Dimensity 9400 SoC and impressive camera specs

The OPPO Find X8 sports a 6.59-inch flat LTPO OLED display with FHD+ resolution and a variable refresh rate of 1-120Hz. The beefier Find X8 Pro flaunts a slightly larger 6.78-inch LTPO OLED with the same screen resolution and refresh rate. Worth noting that the Pro model comes micro-quad-curved display that looks flat but has subtle curves on each side.

The display panel of both Android smartphones comes with 1,600 nits peak global brightness and up to 4,500 nits peak local brightness for HDR content. On the performance front, the Find X8 series packs the MediaTek Dimensity 9400 chipset under the hood. In addition, these devices come with integrated cooling system.

You’ll find a triple-rear camera setup on the Find X8, of which one is the primary camera of 50MP (Sony LYT-700 sensor). Besides, there’s a 50MP ultrawide camera and a 50MP periscope telephoto camera with 3x zoom. The OPPO Find X8 Pro brings an extra 50MP periscope camera with 6x optical zoom making it a quad-camera setup, but it also has a different main camera. It utilizes the Sony LYT-808 instead of LYT-700.

OPPO has further paired these phones with some impressive camera features like Hasselblad Portrait Mode and a new LivePhoto feature. Additionally, the recently unveiled OPPO’s HyperTone engine is there for AI denoising and individual pixel brightness correction. On the software side, the OPPO Find X8 series boots Android 15-based ColorOS 15 out of the box and brings numerous AI features.

Shipments start on October 30 with a global launch later down the line

The OPPO Find X8 has a 5,630 mAh battery, while the X8 Pro packs a 5,910 mAh battery. Both the phones support 80W wired and 50W wireless charging. Besides, both come with an IP69 rating for water and dust resistance.

You can grab the OPPO Find X8 in four different colors – Floating White, Wind Chaser Blue, Hoshino Black, and Bubble Powder. Whereas, the X8 Pro is available in Walking in the Clouds (White), Hoshino Black, and Clear Sky Route (Blue) colorways.

The starting price of the OPPO Find X8 with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage is CNY 4,199 (∼ $590). Besides, the base variant of the OPPO Find X8 Pro with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage is priced at CNY 5,299 (∼ $745).

You can also upgrade to a 16GB RAM variant with 512GB and 1TB storage option. The Find X8 series will be available on October 30 in China. Moreover, these flagship smartphones will also launch globally at some point, but there’s no mention of the launch date.

OPPO Find X8:

OPPO Find X8 Pro:

If you want to back up valuable data from your PC, transfer videos to a Mac or offload a few games from your game console, a good external SSD can help. These tiny bricks may cost more than a traditional portable hard drive, but they’re noticeably faster, smaller and far more reliable in the long term. That said, determining the best external SSD for you isn’t as simple as picking the one that’s priced the lowest or packs the most space. (At least, it shouldn’t be.) If you’re looking to add some portable storage to your desktop or everyday carry, we’ve spent months weeding through the external solid-state drive market, testing several contenders and sorting out which ones deliver the most value. You can find our favorites, plus a quick rundown of what to know before buying one of these things, below.

Table of contents

Best external SSDs for 2024

Photo by Jeff Dunn / Engadget

Capacities: 1TB, 2TB, 4TB | Size: 2.56 x 1.97 x 0.39 inches | Weight: 1.34 ounces | USB interface: USB 3.2 Gen 2 | Controller/bridge chip: Silicon Motion SM2320 | NAND type: TLC | Rated maximum sequential speeds: 1,050 MB/s read, 1,050 MB/s write | Warranty: Five years

The Crucial X9 Pro finished at or just under the top in each of our benchmarks relative to its speed class, and it stayed noticeably cooler than most of the other drives we tested after extended use. It’s a USB 3.2 Gen 2 model, so it’s slower than alternatives based on Thunderbolt, USB4 or USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, but it costs less, and it’s still quick enough for the non-professional tasks most people do with a portable SSD. Ports that can actually utilize USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds tend to be more ubiquitous on mainstream computers, too. This isn’t the cheapest 10 Gbps drive around, but it’s in the same ballpark as its peers and isn’t too expensive. As of this writing, a 1TB model is available for $105, though it often goes for less. (We’ve seen it fall as low as $60 in the past.) 2TB and 4TB versions are also available.

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Besides its relatively speedy performance, the X9 Pro stands out for being so tiny. Its aluminum case is shorter than a credit card and easy to fit in a pocket, weighing in at just 1.34 ounces. The whole thing is IP55-rated, so it’ll survive dust and water splashes, and it’s backed with a five-year warranty, which is a couple years longer than some alternatives.

Our only real complaints are that the included USB-C cable is small and there’s no adapter for USB-A ports in the box. And though the X9 Pro can utilize 256-bit hardware-based encryption, Micron (Crucial’s parent company) has been late to release its own password protection tool to take full advantage of it. We’ll also note that there’s a cheaper non-”Pro” X9, but that one uses QLC flash, so it’s not as durable or fast (especially with sustained writes). The X9 Pro is the better buy.

Pros

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• Great performance for its speed class
• Rugged and super compact form factor
• Stays relatively cool with extended use
• Five-year warranty

Cons

• There are cheaper 10 Gbps drives
• Included USB-C cable is short, and there’s no USB-A cable in the box

$105 at Amazon

Photo by Jeff Dunn / Engadget

Capacities: 1TB, 2TB | Size: 2.74 x 1.28 x 0.53 inches | Weight: 1.01 ounces | USB interface: USB 3.2 Gen 2 | Controller/bridge chip: Silicon Motion SM2320 | NAND type: TLC | Rated maximum sequential speeds: 1,050 MB/s read, 1,000 MB/s write | Warranty: Five years

The Kingston XS1000 performs similarly to the Crucial X9 Pro but has sold for less over the last several months, so it’s a good alternative if you want to save some cash. A 1TB model is available for $75 as of this writing, which is $30 less than the X9 Pro, while the 2TB version is down to $120, which is a roughly $50 drop. There’s no 4TB option, though.

At those prices, the XS1000 is a good value for everyday backups and transfers. It kept up with or slightly edged the X9 Pro across our benchmarks: In our custom file transfer test, for example, its reads were a second faster, while its writes were only six seconds slower. (The two drives appear to have comparable internals and are based on a similar controller — the Silicon Power SM2320G — so this may not be a huge surprise.) It topped every USB 3.2 Gen 2 drive we tested in 3DMark’s gaming storage benchmark as well. It’s slightly thicker than the X9 Pro but still wonderfully portable, with its stubby rectangular design weighing just over an ounce. Like the Crucial drive, it’s backed by a five-year warranty.

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Where Kingston’s model falls behind Crucial’s X9 Pro is in the extras. There’s no formal IP or drop ratings, so we wouldn’t feel as comfortable chucking it around on the go. It lacks hardware-based encryption, and it only comes with a USB-C to A cable, so you’ll need to supply your own adapter if your laptop only has USB-C ports. It doesn’t stay quite as cool as the X9 Pro with continuous use, and its sustained write performance isn’t as fast either, so it’s worth paying up if you plan to regularly copy hundreds of gigabytes to the SSD (and can’t just get a higher-class model). For the money, though, all of this may be easier to overlook.

Pros

• Faster than most 10 Gbps drives we tested
• Aggressively priced
• Highly portable
• Five-year warranty

Cons

• No formal water-resistance or drop protection
• No USB-C to C cable in the box
• Only available in 1TB or 2TB
• Slower sustained write performance than X9 Pro with very large files

$75 at Amazon

Photo by Jeff Dunn / Engadget

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Capacities: 1TB, 2TB, 4TB | Size: 4.13 x 2.52 x 0.62 inches (with fan off), 4.82 x 2.52 x 0.62 inches (with fan on) | Weight: 6.4 ounces | USB interface: USB4 (40 Gbps) | Controller/bridge chip: Asmedia ASM2464PD | NAND type: TLC | Rated maximum sequential speeds: 3,800 MB/s read, 3,700 MB/s write | Warranty: Five years

If you’re a media editor, IT professional or just an enthusiast willing to pay for the fastest portable SSD possible, get the ADATA SE920. It utilizes the newer USB4 interface, and it blew away every non-40 Gbps drive we tested across our benchmark tests. In AmorphousDiskMark, for example, the Crucial X9 Pro delivered sequential reads and writes around 1,015 MB/s and 950 MB/s, respectively; here, those were about 3,350 MB/s and 3,125 MB/s. In our custom mixed file transfer test, we were able to move our 70GB folder to our MacBook in 32 seconds; with the X9 Pro, that process took about 81 seconds on average. Writing the folder to the drive, meanwhile, was about 30 seconds faster. If you’re buying an external SSD to move around large chunks of data, this kind of leap adds up.

The drive itself is significantly bigger and thicker than either of our picks above, but it’s not so large that we’d call it unwieldy. It’s about the size of a deck of cards, so it’ll fit better in a bag than a pants pocket. Beyond that, the brushed metal exterior feels crisp to the touch, and ADATA supports the device with a five-year warranty.

That said, this thing can get seriously hot. The design includes a built-in micro fan to help dissipate heat, which you activate just by clicking the case down; that’s clever, but it’s not enough to keep the drive cool on its own. All of this comes at a price premium, too, with a 1TB model currently available for $180. But if performance is the only thing that matters to you, it’s hard to do better.

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Pros

• Blazingly fast 40 Gbps performance
• Slick metal enclosure
• Smaller than other Thunderbolt SSDs we tested
• Clever built-in fan
• Five-year warranty

Cons

• Gets hot even with fan activated
• Pricier and still larger than other picks
• Requires USB4 port to reach maximum speeds

$180 at B&H Photo

Other external SSDs we tested

The pre-built OWC Express 1M2 is a premium-feeling USB4 SSD that’s roughly as fast as the ADATA SE920, but it’s larger and significantly more expensive as of this writing.

If you’re in the relatively small group with a PC that supports USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 but not Thunderbolt or USB4, the Crucial X10 Pro is essentially a faster version of our top pick. The Lexar SL600 is a larger but slightly quicker option, while the Lexar SL500, Kingston XS2000 or Samsung T9 could also work if you see them on discount. As a reminder, though, drives like these are aimed primarily at content creators and other professionals, and you have to make sure you won’t upgrade to a device with a faster USB interface anytime soon.

The Samsung T7 Shield has a conveniently rugged design with a rubberized, IP65-rated shell. It also comes with both USB-C and USB-A cables. But it was consistently slower than the X9 Pro and XS1000 in our benchmark tests, plus it has a shorter three-year warranty.

The Silicon Power PX10 is an especially affordable USB 3.2 Gen 2 model. Its peak speeds weren’t too far off the X9 Pro or XS1000 in synthetic benchmarks, but it can get distractingly hot and its sustained writes are markedly worse. It took 50 seconds longer to move our 70GB custom test folder to this drive compared to the X9 Pro, for example.

The Crucial X6 is another low-cost option that’s a good bit slower than our top picks. It’s limited to a three-year warranty and lacks an IP rating as well. It’s not a terrible option for the basics, but there’s little reason to get it over the XS1000 when their prices are similar.

The OWC Envoy Pro FX is well-built and supports Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.2 Gen 2, but it’s a smidge slower than the SE920 and Express 1M2, and it’s much pricier than the former.

What to consider before buying an external SSD

Capacity

The first thing to figure out before buying a portable SSD is just how much storage space you need. Most of the drives we considered for this guide are available in capacities ranging from one to four terabytes, though plenty of smaller and larger options exist.

There’s no hard-and-fast rule for which size is “best” — that’ll ultimately depend on your budget and what exactly you’re looking to stash. But in general, it’s better to overcompensate than underdo it. Nobody wants to be forced into buying a second drive because they filled the first one up too quickly. If you’re backing up a PC, a good rule of thumb is to buy an external SSD with twice as much space as your computer’s internal storage. This way, you can save at least one full backup while also having room for additional data. If you want to store a bunch of PlayStation or Xbox games with huge install sizes, you may need more space. If you just want to back up a small collection of files, you may be better off saving your cash and just getting a smaller USB flash drive instead, which aren’t quite the same as the external SSDs we tested for this guide.

Price

In general, you get a better price-per-gigabyte ratio the further you go up the capacity ladder. As of this writing, the 1TB Samsung T9 is priced at $135, or $0.14 per gigabyte (GB), while the 4TB version is available for $350, or $0.09 per GB. That technically makes the larger model a better “value,” but not everyone needs to pay that much more upfront.

SSDs in the same speed class tend to not vary too wildly in terms of performance, so part of our decision-making for this guide came down to which ones are often the cheapest. But prices can fluctuate over time; if you see that one of our top picks is priced way higher than a comparable honorable mention, feel free to get the latter. At this point in time, costs are broadly trending upwards.

Speed and USB interface

Just about all external SSDs are significantly faster than mechanical hard disk drives (HDDs), so you’ll save time waiting for files to transfer and games to load no matter what. Within the market, however, there are distinct performance tiers. These are defined in large part by the USB interface a drive supports. While all of the SSDs we considered for this guide can connect over USB-C, some USB-C connections can supply faster transfer speeds than others. Sorting through this can get real confusing real fast, so we’ll try to put it in simple terms.

Essentially, you can divide today’s crop of portable SSDs into five segments. At the top are drives that utilize Thunderbolt 3 or 4 or the more recent USB4 spec, which have a theoretical maximum transfer rate of 40 gigabits per second (Gbps). Note that USB4 comes in two different variants, though, one of which is limited to 20 Gbps. Below that is USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, which also tops out at 20 Gbps. (Getting confused yet?) Then you have USB 3.2 Gen 2, which maxes at 10 Gbps. Next is USB 3.2 Gen 1, which is capped at 5 Gbps. Lastly, we’ll bundle together SSDs that use older standards and aren’t worth considering here.

For everyday folks, a good USB 3.2 Gen 2 drive is the sweet spot between fast enough performance and a cheap enough price, so those make up our chief recommendations below. If you work in a creative field or don’t mind paying extra to shave seconds off your large file transfers, though, a “higher-tier” model would make sense. However, note that systems that utilize USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 aren’t super common — no Mac supports it, for one — and the interface is effectively being replaced by USB4.

In general, your chain is only as strong as its weakest link: If your computer only has USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, for example, you could still use a Thunderbolt SSD, but you won’t get beyond Gen 2 speeds. Make sure you know what you’re working with before you buy.

As a refresher, storage devices are broadly measured in terms of read and write speeds. The former refers to how long it takes to access something from the drive; the latter, how long it takes to save something to it. From there, you can break these metrics into sequential and random performance. Sequential speeds tend to matter more with portable SSDs, since most people use them to save or access long, constant streams of data such as a bunch of high-res photos. Random speeds would be important if you want to run video games off the drive, since that’d involve reading and writing smaller, more scattered files. Either way, how well an SSD can sustain its performance with extended use is also critical.

Other performance factors and enclosures

A modern portable SSD’s speeds aren’t just about its USB interface, though. Its performance can also depend on how advanced its controller is, whether it has a native USB flash controller or a separate bridge chip to communicate with a host device, the kind and quality of NAND flash memory it uses, whether it has a DRAM cache or it’s DRAM-less, and more.

We’re simplifying things, but here are some quick tips: Drives with triple-level cell (TLC) memory aren’t as cheap as quad-level cell (QLC) SSDs, but they’re generally more reliable and they offer better write performance. Having a dedicated DRAM cache helps if you plan to hit your drive with more intense, sustained workloads, but may not be worth the extra cost for most people. Some models with native flash controllers may not perform as well as those with a bridging chip, depending on the SSD inside, but they typically draw less heat and are physically smaller. All of this is to say that an external SSD’s speeds aren’t quite as straightforward as what the manufacturer chooses to advertise on the box.

It’s also worth remembering that you can turn an internal SSD into a portable solution with a good enclosure. If you have a spare drive and don’t mind going the DIY route, this can be a cheaper and more flexible solution, though we’ve stuck to pre-built models for this guide for the sake of simplicity.

Size, durability, endurance and warranty

Most portable SSDs are impressively small and light, so they won’t be difficult to tuck in a bag (or even a pocket) and take on the go. We note below if any drive is bulkier than usual.

Nothing we’re talking about matters if your drive can’t last in the long term. It’s hard to definitively say which external SSDs are the most reliable, but we scoured through user reviews and feedback while researching this guide to ensure none of our picks show a pattern of catastrophic errors. If there was too much smoke around a particular model, we steered clear. We ruled out certain drives from SanDisk and Western Digital, for instance, after reports from Ars Technica and The Verge noted an issue that led to data loss (and lawsuits) in 2023.

That said, one of the big reasons you’d buy an SSD in general is its superior durability. Because it has no moving mechanical parts inside, an SSD has far fewer avenues to failure than an external hard drive. You still don’t want to be careless with them, but an accidental drop shouldn’t be the end of the world.

Some portable SSDs build on this inherent ruggedness with plastic or rubberized casings and more robust waterproofing. These aren’t necessary for everyone, but if you’re a frequent traveler or someone who often works outdoors, there are options for you.

Still, all drives can fail. If you have any sort of data you’d be distraught to lose, you should back it up regularly, then make a second backup, ideally with a cloud service. Along those protective lines, we also took note of the warranty policy for each drive we tested. Just about all of them are backed for either three or five years; of course, longer is better.

Encryption and software

It’s not uncommon to store sensitive data on a portable SSD, so some models offer extra security features like hardware-based encryption — i.e., direct scrambling of data stored on the drive itself — built-in keypads and fingerprint readers to protect against unauthorized access if the drive is lost or stolen. While not top requirements, perks like these are certainly good to have. Some SSDs also come with companion software to further manage the drive. The best of those can be handy to have around, but we wouldn’t call them essential.

How we test external SSDs

Unfortunately, we did not have access to a device that can make full use of USB 3.2 Gen 2, USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 and Thunderbolt 4/USB4 speeds interchangeably, so we had to split our testing across multiple devices, including an M1 Pro MacBook Pro and an Alienware gaming PC running Windows 11. Because of this, we primarily compared the portable SSDs within each “class” against one another. Before switching OSes, we reformatted each drive to each platform’s standard file system format: APFS for macOS and NTFS for Windows.

After researching which SSDs had enough positive feedback to be worth testing in the first place, we put 13 drives through a range of synthetic and “real-world” benchmark tests. On Windows, these included CrystalDiskMark, PCMark 10’s Data Drive Benchmark and 3DMark’s gaming-focused Storage Benchmark. On macOS, we used AmorphousDiskMark (effectively a Mac version of CrystalDiskMark), BlackMagic Disk Speed Test and ATTO Disk Benchmark.

We also timed how long it took for each drive to read and write a custom 70GB folder filled with roughly 11,500 different files, including photos, videos, music files, PDFs and other large and small data types scattered across numerous subfolders. We performed multiple passes for each test to avoid irregularities, and we kept track of each SSD’s heat levels over the course of the whole suite. Our process wasn’t a perfect science, but it gave us a general sense of how each drive compares to other models in its price and performance range.

Recent updates

October 2024: We’ve taken a sweep through this guide to ensure all pricing and availability info is still correct. Our recommendations are unchanged.