Sony Unveils Ultra-Tough External SSDs for Photographers

Sony has announced new ultra-tough, high-speed external SSD drives geared toward photographers, videographers, and other creatives who want peace of mind while storing large amounts of data on-the-go.

As with Sony’s upcoming Tough line of CFexpress memory cards, the new external drives are protected against many different hazards. They’re dustproof, waterproof (IP67 ), impact proof (from drops up to 9 feet), and crushproof (pressure of up to 6000kgf and bending of up to 2000kgf).

The USB Type-C port on the drives are waterproof even without a sealing cap, and the drives can be safely dropped in up to 3 feet of water.

There are two drive series in the lineup: the compact SL-C series features 540MB/s read and write speeds, while the high-performance SL-M series features read and write speeds of up to 1000MB/s using NVMe SSD technology.

“These ultra-fast speeds make professional workflow more efficient, whether you want to process high-resolution photos or 4K videos, duplicate original files to another device or edit a lot of images at once,” Sony says.

The drives all feature one-piece aluminum bodies with a wave surface for grip and omnidirectional shockproof protection. The silver and yellow design helps make the drives easy to spot among other things.

Other features and specs include hardware encryption (AES 256-bit), intelligent utility software, a conveniently placed LED indicator light, and rubber bands to hold labels and stickers.

Sony’s SL-M series and SL-C series drives will be available in 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB capacities starting in the summer of 2019. Pricing has yet to be announced.