It almost lives up to its billing.
So what’s the catch?
Well, there are a few.
It also doesn’t support hardware encryption, though it will work with software.
And, we’re also not huge fans of the blade covers, candidates to be easily lost.
It has a similar performance and is IP65 Water and Dust Resistance.
A greater threat is the Netac ZX20 Extreme Portable SSD 1TB, which costs $98.99.
That these can be easily lost isn’t the designers' problem, one might conclude.
We’d contest that the USB-C blade is the part of this design most likely to break.
Overall, there isn’t much remarkable about the X1 Max from the outside.
Admittedly, that was a 2TB X6, but we suspect that the 1TB would offer similar results.
But before we talk about its failings, we should say this isn’t a terrible product.
And, over the short file transfer sprint, the performance was decent, and it is competitively priced.
However, the form factor is susceptible to the clumsiness that breaks laptop USB ports and thumb drives.
The caps can easily be lost, and the drive has zero software utilities.
For the expert user, that is the most significant issue.
That’s a shame because most of the other deficiencies of this design could likely be lived with.
Should I buy the Teamgroup X1 Max?
There are no cables, and the caps can easily be lost to make it even lighter.
Also consider
Crucial X9 ProPhysically identical to the X10 Pro except in silver.
The X9 Pro has the same resilience and waterproofing and has the same capacities.
Kingston XS2000This drive came out in late 2021, when Gen 2x2 drives werent a popular option.
While it does use plastic construction, it has an IP55 rating and should travel well enough.
Costing less than $100 for the 1TB model, it delivers sustained performance and hardware encryption.
Check out ourKingston XS2000 review
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