Netac Z Slim review: Too slow and too expensive for what it offers

2 weeks ago 30

Competition is pugnacious successful the satellite of portable SSD, particularly astatine the debased end, and the Netac Z Slim doesn’t fare good erstwhile it comes to sheer worth for money. Its show mightiness person been considered capable a fewer years agone but fixed the prevalence of USB 3.2 Gen 2, there’s nary excuse, really, for not offering faster speeds.

Pros

  • +

    Solidly built

  • +

    Lightweight

  • +

    Three twelvemonth warranty

Cons

  • -

    More costly than the competition

  • -

    No IP rating

  • -

    No bundle bundle

Why you tin spot TechRadar We walk hours investigating each merchandise oregon work we review, truthful you tin beryllium definite you’re buying the best. Find retired much astir however we test.

One-minute review

The Netac Z Slim is simply a portable coagulated authorities thrust that is lightweight, compact, reasonably solid, affordable but slow.

It has a afloat aluminum lawsuit which tin scratch easy but doesn’t consciousness tacky fixed its achromatic colour and the deficiency of immoderate garish features. The Z Slim comes with the strict minimum erstwhile it comes to accessories: conscionable USB cable, an adapter and a pouch and determination is nary bundled software. There’s an LED arsenic good and is disposable successful capacities ranging from 250GB to 2TB. Just carnivore successful caput that it doesn’t transportation immoderate IP oregon MIL-STD ratings; truthful don’t driblet it successful a solid of h2o to impressment your colleagues, this is not a h2o resistant device. It inactive feels reasonably coagulated but beryllium alert of these limitations (even if it includes a three-year warranty).

Netac claims that the thrust should scope read/write speeds of up to 500 MBps which is dilatory by today’s standards. That’s due to the fact that the institution chose to usage SATA parts alternatively than the much communal and faster NVMe; I cannot fathom; it looks - to maine astatine slightest - arsenic a mode to thrust the measure of worldly to arsenic debased arsenic possible. But bargain basement, this 1 isn’t.

The Z Slim ranks amongst the astir costly “slow” (i.e. SATA based) outer SSDs connected the marketplace close now. To marque things worse, there’s adjacent a fistful of portable SSD that connection doubly the velocity of the Z Slim with a little terms tag.

Netac Z Slim portable SSD extracurricular  during our testing

(Image credit: Netac)

Netac Z Slim: Pricing and availability

In a fiercely competitory category, the Z Slim faces immoderate pugnacious competition; with small to differentiate betwixt the products, it’s precise often down to terms and astatine the clip of writing, that’s a contention that the Z Slim has mislaid and 1 that yet prevents it from entering our best portable SSD buying guide. 

Netac Z Slim portable SSD extracurricular  during our investigating  phase

(Image credit: Netac Z Slim)

Netac Z Slim: Benchmark

Given what I knew astir the Z Slim, the trial results are successful nary mode surprising. Netac says that it volition scope 550 MBps connected work and constitute and we got adjacent to those numbers during our synthetic tests. That fig goes mode down successful existent beingness tests, conscionable nether 400 MBps. The thrust didn’t lukewarm up adjacent nether load. 

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Row 0 - Cell 0 Read (MBps)Write (MBps)
AJA501461
CrystalDiskMark588508
ATTO533481
AS SSD510465
Real Life394394

Netac Z Slim: Specs

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Row 0 - Cell 0 Row 0 - Cell 1
Capacities available250GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB
Size100 x 29 x 9mm
Weight30g
Enclosure materialABS plastic
ConnectorUSB-C
TechnologyUSB 3.2 Gen 2
Warranty (in years)3
Rated R/W speeds (MBps)550/550
Software bundleNo
AccessoriesSleeve, USB-A to USB-C cablegram and a USB-C adapter

Base of the Netac Z Slim showing the charging larboard  during our tests

(Image credit: Netac)

Should I bargain the Netac Z Slim?

Buy it if...

You privation a precise tiny outer SSD

The Z Slim is precise tiny and is astir apt arsenic bladed arsenic it gets fixed that a USB-C connector is rather thick.

Don't bargain it...

You privation a existent rugged portable SSD

The Z Slim is not a rugged outer SSD though its plan should marque it much durable than others. Look elsewhere if you privation thing that has an IP-rating oregon adheres to MIL-STD-810.

You privation a accelerated SSD

The Z Slim is simply a reasonably caller SSD truthful we don’t recognize wherefore Netac decided to instrumentality with SATA-level performance. As specified this is 1 of the slowest outer SSD we’ve tested successful caller months, acknowledgment to this obsolete technology.

You privation the cheapest outer SSD

The Z Slim is astir 50% much costly than the outer 1TB SSD we’ve recovered (that’s the Lexar SL200). The second is overmuch bigger than the Z Slim but that should beryllium good for users that lone look for the astir affordable outer storage. 

Netac Z Slim alternatives

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Row 0 - Cell 0 SSKSilicon Power PC60Lexar SL200
Capacity1TB0.96TB1TB
Price$59.99$49.99$44.88
SpeedUSB 3.2 Gen 2USB 3.2 Gen 2USB 3.2 Gen 2
IP ratednonono
Warranty (yrs)333

The SSK is the fastest of the affordable alternatives with a rated read/write velocity of 1050/1000 MBps. It has a utile carabiner and is simply a tad thicker than the Z Slim.

The Silicon Power PC60 is bland, unassuming and mean successful everything but its price. It is an entry-level, affordable and susceptible instrumentality that is far, acold cheaper than the competition.

The Lexar SL2000 portable SSD is the cheapest 1TB portable SSD close now. Its chassis is chiefly integrative and it is bulkier than the Z Slim but that shouldn’t fuss bargain hunters.

How I tested the Netac Z Slim

After having formatted the Z Slim to exFAT, I trial it the aforesaid mode I trial different retention components (external HDD, microSD cards etc). I usage the latest versions of CrystalDiskMark, Atto, AS SSD and AJA benchmarks, noting the champion scores achieved successful each. They are each escaped and tin beryllium downloaded by anyone. I besides transferred a folder of random files, astir 10GB successful size, to get a unsmooth thought of existent beingness performance. 

Desire Athow

Managing Editor, TechRadar Pro

Désiré has been musing and penning astir exertion during a vocation spanning 4 decades. He dabbled successful website builders and web hosting erstwhile DHTML and frames were successful vogue and started narrating astir the interaction of exertion connected nine conscionable earlier the commencement of the Y2K hysteria astatine the crook of the past millennium.

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