Kingston XS2000 review: Ultraportable SSD with blazing fast transfer speeds

At Rs 9,999 (1TB storage), the Kingston XS2000 is in same price ballpark as some of its peers. However, it offers twice as fast data transfer speeds in about half the size of a typical portable SSDs

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The Kingston XS2000 is an ultraportable solid-state drive with USB type-C interface, based on USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 standard. Offered in up to 2TB storage space, the Kingston XS2000 is about half the size of a typical portable SSDs but twice as fast in terms of transfer speeds – up to 2,000 MBps.

The Kingston XS2000 is IP55 rated for resistance against water and dust ingress. Besides, it has a metal and plastic casing for durability. The SSD ships with a removeable ruggedised rubber sleeve for added protection against accidental drops.

At Rs 9,999 for the 1TB storage model (review unit), the Kingston XS2000 is in the same price ballpark as some of its peers such as those from SanDisk and Samsung. However, it has an ultraportable form factor going for it. Like it peers, it comes with five-year limited warranty. Kingston offers free technical support on top for convenience and that is a good addition.

The SSD is compatible with Microsoft Windows 8.1 and above, macOS 10.14 and above, Linux 2.6 and above, and Chrome OS. It come preformatted in exFAT file system, which makes it cross compatible with multiple operating systems. It essentially means, you do not have to reformat it every time you switch to a different operating system. If needed, you can reformat it in NTFS file system but there is no support for Apple’s APFS file system which natively supports Mac Time Machine backups. The drive does not support hardware encryption, but you can put safeguards around it by using software encryption.

Since USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 is not easily available in laptops and desktops, it is a constrain on the SSD side since it delivers peak data transfer rate only when connected on the compatible port. Nevertheless, it is backward compatible and delivers about 1000MBps read and write speeds on USB 3.2 Gen 2 and USB 3.1, which are widely available interfaces in most modern-day laptops and desktops.