Satechi makes some very interesting peripherals focused on Apple devices, but the last one is one of its more unique offerings. The Satechi Mini NVMe SSD Enclosure is everything its name describes — a tiny SSD enclosure that connects via USB-C to all kinds of supported devices.

The main use case many may have for this is using it with a phone for video recording, but it's a great SSD enclosure overall. I like its design quite a bit, and the performance is more than enough to use as a storage device for video recording. It's also a great way to move files from device to device.

About this review: Satechi sent us the Mini NVMe SSD Enclosure for the purposes of this review. The company had no input in its content.

Satechi Mini NVMe SSD Enclosure pricing and availability

Satechi announced and launched the Mini NVMe SSD Enclosure on November 14, 2024, at a price of $59.99. The enclosure doesn't come with any drive pre-installed, even as an optional add-on.

You can find the Mini NVMe SSD Enclosure on Satechi's website and on Amazon.

What I like

A compact and convenient design

One of the highlights of this SSD enclosure for me is definitely the design. Coming off of the previous SSD enclosure I reviewed a few months ago, the Satechi Mini NVMe SSD Enclosure immediately strikes me as far more clever and easy to use.

For one thing, access to the SSD itself is completely tool-less. The SSD is covered by a glass window (which also looks very cool) and it's all magnetic, so you can simply slide the glass cover off to get to it. Securing the SSD also requires no tools. There's a small rubber retainer where you'd usually see a screw, and all you need to do is pull it back, push the SSD down, and release it. It couldn't be simpler. Of course, something this small only works with an M.2 2230 SSD, similar to the ones for the Steam Deck.

Access to the SSD itself is completely tool-less

It's also great that the USB port is built directly into the enclosure. For something this small, it's obvious that you're probably going to be using it with a phone, so being forced to use a cable would be inconvenient. You could have a magnetic enclosure like the one DockCase has made, but that only works for iPhone models. Plugging directly into your phone makes the most sense.

And if you do want to use a cable, don't worry — the included lanyard is actually a USB-C extension cable you can pop out whenever you need it. It does make the package a bit bulky, but you can remove it if you don't need the cable.

Satechi also opted to use active fan cooling for the enclosure, which should ensure any SSD you put in it will run smoothly. Finally, it's worth mentioning the lock slider on the side of the enclosure. Switching this to the locked position will block a host device from writing to the SSD, only allowing it to read from it.

It's pretty fast

Of course, you're buying something like this because you want fast external storage, and thankfully, the Satechi Mini NVMe SSD enclosure also delivers on that front. It uses a USB 3.2 Gen 2 connection, which means you have bandwidth up to 10Gbps. In theory, that would result in about 1,250MB/s speeds at the most. That means you don't need a fancy PCIe 5.0 SSD, or even a PCIe 4.0 one. Something as simple as PCIe 3.0 will already be faster than the USB connection allows, but that's not a bad thing since it means you can get a cheaper SSD, and this is still very fast at the end of the day.

It uses a USB 3.2 Gen 2 connection, which means you have bandwidth up to 10Gbps.

I tested the speeds in a few ways. On Windows, I ran CrystalDiskMark on a few different PCs with the default settings. I tried three different computers, and for one of them, I tried using the included extension cable to see if it would make a difference (it didn't).

You can see speeds reaching around 1,050MB/s for sequential reads, and 950MB/s for sequential writes. There is some variation here and there, but overall, performance is very good.

I also ran the ATTO Disk Benchmark on Windows and macOS with a queue depth of 4 (the default on Windows). You can see speeds hitting just over 1,000MB/s here.

The scores on macOS don't seem to be the most reliable, since some of the tests indicate speeds well above what this connection supports, but as the results level out, you can see them fall in line with what's on Windows, maxing out at around 950MB/s.

As a more real-life test (but less scientific), I also tried moving a set of files and folders from and to the SSD, amounting to roughly 8.95GB. On the M4 Mac Mini, copying from the SSD to the internal storage took roughly 18.54 seconds, and copying the content back to the SSD surprisingly took just 11.41 seconds. On Windows (I used the Asus Zenbook S 14 for this), transferring from the SSD to the computer took 13.82 seconds, while the reverse took 16.49 seconds.

What I don't like

It gets a bit loud

Using active cooling for such a small SSD enclosure is definitely an interesting choice, especially for SSDs that don't need to run that fast. The Dockcase Pocket Photography Edition I reviewed previously only relied on passive cooling and it seemed to work quite well.

Active cooling is generally more effective, but it does come with a big downside — noise. The fan in the enclosure can get noticeably loud, even more so than the laptop you connect the SSD to. It won't be noticeable that often during normal use, but it definitely became apparent when I was running benchmarks on it.

Minor issues on Android

Aside from the noise, the only issue I've really had with the Satechi Mini NVMe SSD Enclosure is that it doesn't always get recognized by my phone when I plug it in. It may just be specific to my phone or Android, but it's something I noticed and I figured I should mention it.

When it does get recognized, it seems to be stable, so it's not like you run the risk of data being corrupted. It's just an inconvenience.

Should you buy the Satechi Mini NVMe SSD Enclosure?

At the end of the day, not everyone needs a portable external SSD like what this provides, but if you happen to be looking for one, the Satechi Mini NVMe SSD Enclosure is a pretty good one. The design is extremely user-friendly, making it easy to set up without any tools, and it looks cool to boot. The metal and glass chassis is pretty sweet.

Plus, it's got about as much speed as you'd need if you're using it with a phone, and even most PCs would be just fine with these speeds. The $60 asking price is not outrageous at all considering what you're getting compared to something like the DockCase Pocket Photography Edition I mentioned above. I have no trouble recommending this one.

You should buy the Satechi Mini NVMe SSD Enclosure if:

• You want a tiny, portable SSD you can attach to your phone
• You want something that's convenient and easy to carry
• You want decently fast speeds

You should NOT buy the Satechi Mini NVMe SSD Enclosure if:

• You want to use larger form-factor SSDs like M.2 2280
• The fan noise is a problem for you