TEAMGROUP is a well-known Taiwanese hardware manufacturer and an emerging brand in the European consumer SSD market. Besides a wide range of SSDs, their hardware range includes an consummate array of DDR5 RAM, as well as memory cards, USB drives and peripherals. They provided a sample for the PD20 Mini External SSD for review and testing.
The PD20 Mini External SSD is available in 1TB, 2TB and 4TB sizes providing plenty of capacity for backing up a computer or holding a good amount of data. It’s capable of fast read and write speeds (up to 2000 MB/s sequential read, 1800 MB/s sequential write). All of the PD20 SSDs are backed by a five year warranty.
The SSD uses the Silicon Motion SM2320. That’s a single-chip solution integrating both the USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 interface and SSD controller, including four NAND channels. As it’s an all-in-one design, no separate USB bridge chip is needed.
We hammered the SSD with sequential writes for more than 45 minutes and had no issues with stability with both an Intel 15th gen desktop machine and an Intel NUC (although the NUC’s USB ports aren’t able to max out performance; more on that later in this review).
Design
The design is excellent from a number of perspectives. For a start, the PD20 Mini is both incredibly light, compact, sleek, and highly portable. It weighs a mere 22g and measures 75mm long, by 34mm wide, by 15.2mm thick.
The main part of this drive is plastic, with a flap covering the bottom three quarters that incorporates a plug for the USB-C port. The top section of the device sports a slot designed to secure it with a strap. The device appears durable for everyday use but I’ll need a longer testing period to be definitive on this aspect. It’s an attractive design with a metallic gray and ribbed black rubber look.
The PD20 uses USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 (20 Gbps), while Thunderbolt SSDs are at the top of the tree in terms of both performance and price. The USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 ecosystem suffers from a paucity of computers that come supplied with USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, so check that your machine offers this specification.. Note USB4/TB4 does not support 2×2, you’ll only get 2×1 (10 Gbps) performance .
The PD20 is supplied with a single Type-C cable. This make sense, as there’s little point in providing a USB-A connector as Gen 2×2 only works on USB-C ports. Of course, there’s nothing to stop you using a Type-C to Type-A cable but you’ll be limiting performance to a maximum of 10 Gbps.
There’s IP54 protection certification. An IP54 rating means that the SSD is protected against dust and water splashes. This means that although the device is somewhat durable, it is not dust-tight and it shouldn’t be exposed to temporary or continuous immersion in water or water jets either. With the IP54 rating, the PD20 should be suitable for outdoor use, even in the rain.
The drive arrives formatted in exFAT with no software on the device. I reformatted the device to ext4.
Here are the specs for the 2TB SSD.
Specifications
| TEAMGROUP PD20 2TB Mini External SSD | |
|---|---|
| Brand | TEAMGROUP |
| Model: | PD20 Mini |
| Form Factor: | M.2 NVMe |
| Capacity: | 2TB (1TB, 2TB and 4TB capacities are available) |
| Controller | Silicon Motion SM2320 |
| USB Bridge | n/a |
| NAND: | 3D TLC flash |
| Interface | USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C |
| Dimensions | 75(L) x 34(W) x 15.2(H)mm |
| Weight | 22g |
| Warranty: | 5 years |
| Price: | |
Let’s put the SSD through its paces.
Next page: Page 2 – Benchmarks
Pages in this article:
Page 1 – Introduction and Specifications
Page 2 – Benchmarks
Page 3 – Summary