Unlike most drives, the SanDisk Professional G-Drive ArmorLock SSD doesn’t immediately appear on your computer’s desktop when you connect it. Instead you have to download and open the ArmorLock software and ‘add’ the drive. Then you need to click to unlock the drive before it can be accessed. That all only takes a couple of minutes at most, and from then on, you can access the drive like any other.
It’s also possible to connect the SanDisk Professional G-Drive ArmorLock SSD via Bluetooth to a smartphone running the free ArmorLock app. A QR code on the back of the drive make identifying the drive easy. The smartphone app has a helpful option to set the drive to unlock automatically when it’s connected to a computer.
The desktop app allows you to update the drive’s firmware and add other users to the drive. After a few failed attempts at adding a user, I had to check the instruction manual as it’s not intuitive. However, it’s not a lengthy process and once it’s done, it’s done. I was able to add my smartphone as a user or manager so that I can unlock the drive remotely.
Testing the drive using Blackmagic Design’s Disk Speed Test, I found that the read and write speeds are generally a little shy of the 900MB/s mark. However, my real-world testing confirmed, that’s still fine for use as a working drive when editing 4K video.
In another real-world test, I transferred a folder containing 5.53GB of files comprising 50 raw files and 50 Jpegs from the 45.7Mp Nikon Z7 II to the SanDisk Professional G-Drive ArmorLock SSD from my iMac desktop in around 25.55 seconds.
Transferring 5 clips of 4K video, totalling 25.5GB in size, took 1 minute 29.28 seconds.
