When you think of innovation in the storage industry you typically think of things like M.2 and SATA Express that help enable even faster transfer speeds. Well, a while back I was contacted by a lesser known company in the storage industry called Apacer. They had all of the standard products of course but there was one specific product that really caught my eye. This was their AS720 SSD, at first glance, it wasn’t especially innovative. But I noticed that along with the SATA connection on one end, it also had a new USB 3.1 Type C connection on the other end. This really got me thinking about how useful an SSD with dual interfaces could be. For starters, it is worlds smaller than the normal 2.5 inch USB storage devices because it doesn’t need a thick casing on top of the hard drive or SSD like most external USB drives. I was also thinking about how useful it could be when cloning your old drive to your new SSD, especially with laptops that aren’t going to have two SATA connections. So today I’m going to take a look at Apacer’s dual interface SSD. I’m going to dig inside and see what makes it tick, then test both interfaces to see just how well they both perform.
Product Name: Apacer AS720 Dual Interface SSD 240GB
Review Sample Provided by: Apacer
Written by: Wes
Pictures by: Wes
| Specifications | |
| Interface |
-SATA 6.0 Gb/s interface, backward compatible with 1.5, 3.0 Gbps interfaces -USB 3.1 Super Speed specification compliance, backward compatible with USB 1.1, 2.0, 3.0 interface specifications |
| Capacity | 120 GB, 240 GB |
| Performance 120GB Model |
Via USB 3.1 (Unit: MB/s) Sequential Read: 550 Sequential Write: 275 Via SATA (Unit: MB/s) Sequential Read: 550 Sequential Write: 275 4K (IOPS) Random Read: 60,000 Random Write: 40,000 |
| Performance 240GB Model |
Via USB 3.1 (Unit: MB/s) Sequential Read: 550 Sequential Write: 460 Via SATA (Unit: MB/s) Sequential Read: 550 Sequential Write: 460 4K (IOPS) Random Read: 78,000 Random Write: 75,000 |
| Form Factor | 2.5 inch |
| NAND Flash Media | MLC |
| ECC | Up to 55bit/1KB |
| Operating Voltage | 5V ± 5% |
| Power Consumption (Unit: mA) 120GB Model |
Via SATA Active: 450 Idle: 60 Via USB 3.0 Active: 680 Idle: 250 Via USB 3.1 Active: 800 Idle: 300 |
| Power Consumption (Unit: mA) 240GB Model |
Via SATA Active: 700 Idle:60 Via USB 3.0 Active: 950 Idle: 250 Via USB 3.1 Active: 1,100 Idle:300 |
| Dimension | 100.10mm (L) x 69.85mm (W) x 7.00mm (H) |
| Reliability Features | S.M.A.R.T, Wear-leveling, ECC (up to 55bit/512-byte sector), NCQ, sudden power-off recovery, DuraWrite Technology |
| Operating Temperature | 0°C to 70°C |
| Storage Temperature | -40°C to 85°C |
| Shock | Half sine 3000G/0.3ms |
| Vibration | Sine 30G, 10 ~ 2000Hz |
| Warranty | 3 years |
| Certifications | RoHS, CE, FCC |
| System Requirements |
-Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows Vista -MAC OS 10.4 or later -Linux 2.6.33 or later |
