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: Pricing and availability
- How overmuch does it cost? $109.99 (2TB), $65.99 (1TB), $42.99 (500GB), $31.99 (250GB)
- When is it available? Now
- Where tin you get it? Globally
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: 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) |
AJA | 501 | 461 |
CrystalDiskMark | 588 | 508 |
ATTO | 533 | 481 |
AS SSD | 510 | 465 |
Real Life | 394 | 394 |
Netac Z Slim: Specs
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Row 0 - Cell 0 | Row 0 - Cell 1 |
Capacities available | 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB |
Size | 100 x 29 x 9mm |
Weight | 30g |
Enclosure material | ABS plastic |
Connector | USB-C |
Technology | USB 3.2 Gen 2 |
Warranty (in years) | 3 |
Rated R/W speeds (MBps) | 550/550 |
Software bundle | No |
Accessories | Sleeve, USB-A to USB-C cablegram and a USB-C adapter |
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 | SSK | Silicon Power PC60 | Lexar SL200 |
Capacity | 1TB | 0.96TB | 1TB |
Price | $59.99 | $49.99 | $44.88 |
Speed | USB 3.2 Gen 2 | USB 3.2 Gen 2 | USB 3.2 Gen 2 |
IP rated | no | no | no |
Warranty (yrs) | 3 | 3 | 3 |
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.