Western Digital portable SSD line jumps to a massive 4TB

This story is part of CES, where our editors will bring you the latest news and the hottest gadgets of the entirely virtual CES 2021.

Here’s some news creative professionals and some gamers may be jazzed about: Western Digital has a new range of 4TB solid-state drives for CES, out by the end of March and starting at around $700. Until now, flash-memory based SSDs, which are significantly smaller and feature much faster data transfer rates — and much higher price tags — than standard external hard drives, have maxed out at 2TB.

Western Digital has three SSD brands in its portfolio, which makes things a little confusing. Some drives feature 1,050 megabyte-per-second read and up to 1,000 MBps write speeds while others, like SanDisk’s Extreme Pro Portable SSD, are capable of delivering up to 2,000 MBps read/write speeds if you pair them with the right equipment.

Alas, while you can use these drives with the new Xbox Series X and Series S (and other game consoles), Western Digital hasn’t made a drive specifically for the new Xbox models’ dedicated expansion port that matches Microsoft’s Velocity Architecture for the fastest possible load times and seamlessly expands the new Xbox models’ storage. Currently, the Seagate Expansion Card for Xbox Series X/S (1 terabyte for $220) is the only drive available that’s made for that slot.

Here’s a quick look at the new Western Digital 4TB models, with key specs, according to the company. There’s no word yet on international pricing, but we’ll add it as soon as we get it ($700 is about £520 or AU$910).