PRO-G40 SSD- professional-grade storage in India!

Western Digital launches professional-grade storage solutions for content creators in India- PRO-G40 SSD. The three SSDs and one docking unit unveiled as part of the launch are aimed at content creators and professionals.

The PRO-G40 SSD comes with an aluminum core designed to pull heat away from the internal drive to help maintain transfer speeds over time. The drive has dual-mode compatibility with both Thunderbolt 3 (40Gbps) and USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps). It has a pro-grade enclosure with IP68 dust/water resistance to withstand up to 1.8-tonne crush resistance, and up to 3-meter drop resistance. The PRO-G40 SSD is priced at ₹34,999.

The SanDisk Professional G-RAID Shuttle SSD is a transportable 8-bay hardware RAID SSD solution with Thunderbolt 3 (40Gbps) and USB-C (10Gbps) interfaces with up to 32TB of high-performance solid-state storage. It can transfer 4K, 8K, VR, high dynamic range (HDR), and high frame rate (HFR) footage and has a transfer rate of up to 2800MB/s.

The SanDisk Professional G-RAID Shuttle SSD also comes with Dual Thunderbolt 3 ports to allow users to daisy chain up to five additional devices and is priced at ₹ 3,99,999 in India.

The SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE Enterprise-Class Desktop Hard Drive comes with data transfers of up to 280MB/s read and 280MB/s write with 22TB capacity. The drive uses USB-C (10Gbps) port 7200RPM Ultrastar and will be available in 4TB, 6TB, 12TB, 18TB, and 22TB capacities. The SanDisk Professional G-RAID starts at ₹ 19,999.

Intel Arc Alchemist GPUs: prices, specs, release dates, and more

The SanDisk Professional PRO-DOCK 4, a 4-bay reader docking station, is designed to bridge capture and ingest data that saves critical time on multi-camera productions, the company claimed. The dock has Thunderbolt (40Gbps) connectivity and can be attached to a DIT Cart or other gear. The unit is priced at ₹34,999.

Calling the amount of content created by new age content creators “unprecedented”, Western Digital said that 350GB of content is created every month by individual creators, and a Bollywood movie requires around 200-300TB of storage. As such, their SanDisk professional portfolio is aimed at enabling creators to capture, transfer, and manage production assets effectively.

Other products launched at the event include SanDisk Professional PRO-BLADE  TRANSPORT and SSD Mag, a versatile NVMe SSD mag and portable enclosure for the ultimate modular SSD ecosystem; and SanDisk Professional PRO-READER SD and microSD. 

For Gaming updates, check this link out: Gaming Advancement in 2023 Metaverse Cloud Gaming and more

SanDisk Professional PRO-G40 SSD

Per conventional wisdom of portable storage: If you get a Thunderbolt 3 (or 4) drive, it won’t work with USB despite fitting perfectly into a USB-C port.

That changed on October 5, 2022, when the SanDisk Professional PRO-G40 SSD, the latest in Western Digital’s PRO storage lineup, arrived. And the new external storage device proved to be WD’s best portable SSD to date in my testing. It has (almost) everything you’d wanted.

In fact, the PRO-G40 SSD is the answer I’ve been looking for since the Samsung X5 I tested some four years ago.

Here’s the bottom line: If you’re looking for a super-fast portable SSD that can do it all at the current hefty street price of $499.99 for 2TB and $299.99 for 1TB, the new PRO-G40 SSD is still an excellent buy.

The new PRO-G40 SSD is the latest in Wester Digital’s portable PRO storage for the processional under the SanDisk Professional brand.

As such, the new drive’s design reminds me of the PRO-BLADE Transport. The main difference is that the G40 is a completely portable SSD with faster speeds and versatility.

It’s also compact enough to fit into one’s palm and weighs just a quarter of a pound (120 grams).

The new portable PRO-G40 SSD is rugged and can take some beating. WD says it features IP68 dust/water resistance, up to 4000-pound crush resistance up to 3-meter drop resistance. Consequently can withstand the elements of any working environment.

On the inside, the new PRO-G40 SSD checks all the boxes for a dream portable drive. Almost.

First, it’s a Thunderbolt 3 drive that can deliver up to 2700MB/s of copy speed. If you have a USB-C port, it also supports USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) with up to 1000MB/s performance.

And you can move from one standard to another seamlessly. The only difference is that it performs faster with Thunderbolt 3.

WD PRO-G40 SSD: Hardware specifications

It doesn’t support hardware encryption or any built-in protection feature — you’ll need third-party software if you want to keep your data safe against prying eyes.

On top of that, its rated performance with USB could be better — it doesn’t support USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 (20Gbps).

Out of the box, the PRO-G40 is formatted with the APFS file system to work with a Mac immediately. Windows users can reformat it into NTFS or the exFAT system if they want to interchangeably use the drive with the two platforms.

While the drives work with any host with a USB-C port, it performs best when used with Thunderbolt 3, which is supported in all new Macs.

And by the way, in my experience, the drive will not work with USB 2.0 or any USB-A port. You must use it with a USB-C (or Thunderbolt) port. That’s not a huge deal unless you want to use it with older computers.

Conclusion

The SanDisk Professional PRO-G40 SSD is excellent for anyone who needs a portable SSD that’s rugged, fast and works across platform and connection standards. Currently, it’s one of a few that can handle both Thunderbolt 3 and USB interchangeably.

In a way, it’s a storage device that helps blur the line between these two connection standards that share the same USB-C port type. And that’s a good thing. The fact it’s also super-fast and rugged doesn’t hurt.

WiFi 6 provides the fastest real-world speeds and range: An upgrade on WiFi 5