This SanDisk PRO-BLADE Transport is built for pros, here’s why it beats standard SSDs

On the surface, if you had to describe the SanDisk Professional PRO-BLADE Transport, it is essentially a portable SSD. What it’s slightly different to others is the fact that it’s also just an enclosure that offers a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2×2 interface for ultra-fast transfer rates up to 20 Gb/s between the internal SSD that’s being inserted and your machine.

Unlike other enclosures, it’s not designed to just pop in an M.2 SSD that you’ve purchased separately. Instead, it uses PRO-BLADE SSD mags, which do have an M.2 SSD internally but are far more robust and are designed to be quickly inserted inside the Transport to offer you up to 4 TB of storage.

The system is all part of a larger ecosystem. Back in the studio, you have a full PRO-BLADE Station, which can take up to four of these 4 TB mags. In this review, I’ve got one 2 TB mag, which I’ll be using inside the PRO-BLADE Transport, the portable part of this ecosystem.

Essentially, the idea is that when you head off on a shoot, you take a series of these PRO-BLADE SSD mags with you. If it’s just you working on a job, you could offload all of your media files onto one of these drives and then back it up onto another. Because the PRO-BLADE Transport enables you to use swappable mags, it will ultimately cut down on the amount of cabling and devices that you need to take with you. While the PRO-BLADE Transport is a little larger than most portable hard drives, when you start stacking up the PRO-BLADE SSD mags, it makes a much smaller package.

Then there’s the ease of use. In the field, you’re used to a bit of improvisation, so a portable hard drive, in this case, the PRO-BLADE Transport connected with a USB cable to your machine, is just part of the usual workflow. However, back in the studio, when you need to offload all of that content back onto your archive or working drives, the fact that you can plug the mags quickly into the PRO-BLADE Station and offload up to four 4 TB PRO-BLADE SSD mags in one go will make a huge difference to the time it takes to back up all of your working image and video files.

So, the Transport is essentially a single-bay enclosure for the SanDisk PRO-BLADE SSD mags. One of the key features here is that it uses the USB-C 3.2 Gen 2×2 interface that offers up to 20 Gb/s. This is effectively a two-channel version of the more common USB-C 3.2 Gen 2, which offers 10 Gb/s. That means it requires you to have that interface on your machine. If not, even if you have a faster interface, such as Thunderbolt 3, 4, or 5, then the speed of the transfer will be downgraded to that base-level USB-C 3.2 rather than 2×2, so just 10 Gb/s.

One of the issues here is that in the creative sector, many people use Macs, and most professionals in the field will have a MacBook Pro, although this has been changing over to PC with relative speed in the past few years and seems to have accelerated this year (2025). These all offer Thunderbolt 4/5, so instantly a whole sector of users will be using what seems to be a fast enclosure offering up to 20 Gb/s, but because of that downgrade in the interface, it means you’ll only get 10 Gb/s, which is a bit of a shame.

However, 10 Gb/s is still fast, and one of the great things here is that the drive is bus-powered. Unlike the PRO-BLADE Station that’s designed for use in the studio, the PRO-BLADE Transport is designed for the field and will enable you to quickly back up and offload all of your media files onto one of the PRO-BLADE SSD mags, which need to be bought separately. When it comes to the mags themselves, they come in capacities ranging from 1 TB to 2 TB, as in this review, and a 4 TB version.

One of the first things to stand out about the SanDisk Professional PRO-BLADE Transport is the quality. It’s beautifully designed and feels robust. Whilst it might not be weatherproof, it will certainly withstand a knock or two, as I found out during this review after I accidentally dropped it from about a three-metre height during a shoot.

It’s nice to see that SanDisk has gone for a considered design and not just something purely functional. With the matte finish, a nice logo on top, and overall aesthetics including decent indicator lights, it’s a nice-feeling piece of kit. If I were going to say one thing about the Transport’s design, it would be that I would like to see some type of rubber foot on the base.

When you’re out and about, you tend to put your portable hard drive wherever you can, and if that surface is slightly sloped, then when it’s not connected to your machine via a cable, it can slide off. There’s no rubber to create friction and prevent that.

The other thing I would like is some sort of cable holder built into the Transport. I do like the fact that you can use your own USB Type-C cable, but at the same time, it would be nice to have a simple clip system to secure the cable to the Transport when you’re moving around. This is a common issue with all portable hard drives, where the cable is separate, even when you keep them neatly together in a bag or case, cables can be misplaced. A simple clip to hold the cable to the side of the drive would keep things neat when transporting it.

When it comes to the drive design and how it works, it’s really quite clever. Essentially, you have the enclosure and you have the SSD mag. The SSD mag has an M.2 drive inside, but is made from the same solid aluminium casing, so it is durable, and the aluminium housing helps dissipate heat under load. Initially, one of my concerns with the whole system was that these SSD mags feature their own proprietary connector on the end, so you can only plug them directly into the PRO-BLADE Transport or PRO-BLADE Station; you can’t, for example, plug them directly into a USB Type-C port.

However, I really like the way this is designed and built. You can have four or five of these mags in the case, ready to go. When one fills up, you simply eject it, put in another, and off you go again, much the same way you would work with multiple portable hard drives, but this feels a lot neater. There’s also just enough space on the flat surface on top of the drive to add a label if you need to, though the fit in some cases can be tight.

Another great thing is that the SSD mags can be inserted and removed without the need for any tools, but as ever, they do need to be ejected from the system, especially if you’re on a Mac, to avoid file corruption.

When it comes to size and weight, the PRO-BLADE Transport measures 130.4 mm × 71.5 mm × 16 mm with a drive installed and weighs 165 g. It’s slightly heavier than some rival systems but still relatively light in the grand scheme of things.

One point to mention is that because it is USB Type-C, if your camera supports external storage, you can use this drive as an external storage device, something many people will find extremely useful, especially if you have 4 TB of capacity ready to go. The design also makes it easy to clamp onto rigs and other systems.

When it comes to features, you have to remember that the SanDisk Professional PRO-BLADE Transport is part of a larger ecosystem. As it is, it’s really an empty vessel ready for those SSD mags to be inserted.

What it does above and beyond other enclosures is allow you to insert and remove the SSD mags without the use of tools. All you need to do is eject them from your machine in the usual way and then pull them out, ready for the new one to be inserted. It’s nice and simple.

There’s also no need for an AC adapter or external power supply. Whilst the PRO-BLADE Station is a docking station with removable SSD modules, the PRO-BLADE Transport is bus-powered, drawing power from whatever device it’s attached to.

The build is of high-quality plastic with a solid feel. Internally, there’s a set of electronics to control thermal management and ensure fast speeds even when using it as a working drive, not just for backup.

In terms of compatibility, there are a few issues with the USB-C 3.2 Gen 2×2 interface, as it is downgraded, as explained earlier, if you’re using Thunderbolt 3, 4, or 5. But if you have the right interface, you can expect speeds of about 20 Gb/s.

Because the USB-C interface is so widely used, there are many USB-C compatible cameras that will work with it. You can connect the Transport to a camera rig easily, and what really interests me here is the fact that once a mag fills up, I can very quickly remove it and insert a new one without needing to remove the enclosure. The enclosure can stay fixed to the rig, which is very convenient.

In use, the styling and design of the SanDisk Professional PRO-BLADE Transport really start to make sense. Used in the field just to back up files and data onto a laptop with a USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 interface, the transfer rates were exceptionally good. Offloading data from a Canon EOS R5C onto the 2 TB SSD mag was fast, and I was impressed with the read and write speeds, showing that this is a pro-level piece of kit. It still bugs me a little that they’ve opted for this interface and not something more up to date, like Thunderbolt 4, but that is only just starting to be used.

Switching to a Mac, you instantly see the downgrade in performance due to the Thunderbolt 4 port, rather than something that would enable the maximum transfer rate possible from this device.

Another thing that became apparent was that, because I’m just using the enclosure with a single mag, there’s very little difference in its use compared with a portable SSD. At that point, there’s very little reason to go for this system unless you use multiple mags.

However, as I already use a similar storage system professionally, I can really see the potential of the PRO-BLADE Transport workflow. What I really liked was the small mag design that lets you quickly insert and remove mags without removing the enclosure. This meant that when I had the enclosure attached to the side of a cage or rig, all I needed to do was swap out the mags, much the same way as with any professional system.

Back in the studio, if I had the PRO-BLADE Station, downloading all the footage and images from a shoot would be extremely quick and easy.

When it comes to my final thoughts about the SanDisk PRO-BLADE Transport, I am really impressed. At first, it takes a little time to get your head around the different workflow that an enclosure-and-mag system like this has over standard portable hard drives, but once you do, it makes a lot of sense.

As mentioned at the beginning of the review, this is a professional piece of kit. If you’re an enthusiastic beginner, the cheaper and simpler option would be a solo SSD. However, if you’re a professional and you need a strong, reliable kit with this rugged modular SSD design, it’s absolutely ideal.

The fact that the PRO-BLADE Transport on its own doesn’t cost a huge amount means you can attach the unit securely to your rigs or cameras and use it as external storage when shooting high-resolution video. Then, when you fill up one mag, you can quickly swap it for another so that the mag can be taken away for editing.

In a professional environment, this all makes sense. At home, or for serious enthusiasts, the need for this level of equipment just isn’t there, although it is rather nice.

There are a few design features I would have liked to see improved. There are no rubber feet on the base, so whilst it is incredibly rugged, some feet would have been a nice addition. If I buy one of these, I’ll put a rubber strip on the base for more grip when it’s in precarious locations.

It also isn’t waterproof or weatherproof, which is a little disappointing for a product of this type. However, weatherproofing would make it more awkward to use; for example, you couldn’t have the current easy mag insertion. Perhaps in future they’ll release an IP68 version with a small cover over the mag holder to make it fully waterproof.

Ultimately, at the end of the test, I was really impressed with the PRO-BLADE Transport enclosure and the speed of the 2 TB SSD mag. As a standalone product, it’s good, but there are cheaper portable SSDs at the same capacity and speed. At this point, it’s a shame that SanDisk opted for the USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 interface, as it’s not fully compatible with all machines when it comes to maximum transfer speeds, so many users can’t make the most of it.

Where it really makes sense is in a professional environment, where you have the enclosure set up so you can quickly swap mags or rig it to your cameras. Back in the studio, you can put all those mags into the PRO-BLADE Station and download the footage onto your archive or working drives quickly, making it a great solution all-round.