Reviews |ADATA i-memory MacBook Pro Memory upgrade: Review

ADATA i-memory MacBook Pro Memory upgrade: Review

ADATA i-memory
Review

ADATA are known for their memory and storage solutions. The ADATA i-memory is a product designed to help MacBook Pro 13-inch users extend the life of their laptops with a huge boost to storage.

MacBook’s are common partners for photographers, the all metal construction and reliability make them an obvious choice. Price however means that it’s not too uncommon to see an old MacBook still doing the rounds even through it’s well over five years old, or even older.

Even MacBooks of this age pack some serious power and whilst many might dismiss them a couple of simple upgrades will transform both the speed and power.

The first change is the hard drive: the older MacBook’s enable you to take out the old optical HDD and swap it for a SSD (Solid State Drive).

Once that’s done, add some more RAM and you’re done. Most photographers I’ve spoken too have already done this to their machines, but one of the big issues they still find is storage.

SSDs, unlike HDDs, are generally far smaller in capacity and the cost of the drives is far more. You can pick up a 500GB HDD for less than £50, whereas a 512GB SSD will set you back well over £250.

This means that small-capacity SSD drives are common. The most obvious solution is to carry a portable hard drive – small, neat and easy to transport. But, of course, the issue here is it’s yet another piece of kit to lug around, and you have to remember the cables, etc. And you still have the issue of expense.

Another neater solution is ADATA’s i-memory card. This small card simply slides into your MacBook’s SD card slot and provides either 64, 128 or 256GB of additional storage.

Once in place it fits snuggly to the side of the computer with a tabbed end that enables its easy extraction when needed.

As upgrades go it’s one of the easiest solutions you can get, and the installation is quick and seamless. Once installed it appears as a drive like any other on your desktop and can be used as backup for your images or as a working drive.

As it’s flash memory, the read / write speeds, although not quite up to SSD standards, are still impressive. ADATA quote 95mb/s read and 60 mb/s write. In my tests I found that on my MacBook Pro 13″ late 2011 model the card rated an impressive 82mb/s read and 50mb/s write.

As the card sits in the SD card slot you do have the issue that it needs to be removed before another SD can be put in. The card ejects from the machine like any other and to avoid accidental damage is shockproof, dust and waterproof.

As an upgrade the ADATA iMemory expansion for MacBook Pro 13-inch is an absolute essential with little if anything to fault.

If you’re in need of a MacBook 13-inch makeover then this should be at the top of your upgrades list.

Buy the ADATA i-Memory 64GB from Amazon

Buy the ADATA i-Memory 128GB from Amazon

Buy the ADATA i-Memory 256GB from Amazon