If you’re in the market for more storage during the deals season, this is one of the best deals we’ve spotted for an external SSD so far. You can check out more of the Cyber Monday SSD deals we’ve found so far, but if you’re specifically looking for an external SSD, this is the one to get. This rugged SanDisk SSD is discounted a major 50% down to a price that’s hard to ignore even if you already have plenty of storage kicking around. For $120 on Best Buy, you can grab this Sandisk Extreme 1TB external NVMe SSD and make it a permanent resident in your backpack.
The NVMe drive in there means that, even on a USB-C connection, this Sandisk can transfer files pretty darn fast: it has a read speed of 1,050MB/sec and write speed of 1,000MB/sec. That means, for instance, a 10-minute HD video can move onto and off the drive in a matter of seconds, while a chunky videogame like Call of Duty: Warzone would only take a few minutes.
The Sandisk’s other main feature, as you can probably tell by its grill pattern and orange accent, is durability. The drive has an IP55 rating for dust protection and water resistance, which means it’ll survive if it gets a little wet (but try not to drop it into a lake). Sandisk advertises shock protection, too. The outer rim seems to be a softer rubber that’ll absorb a reasonable fall nicely. A few user reviews point out that there are no dust covers on the drive’s ports, so it’s not completely protected.
Still, a drive this big and fast for $120 feels like a huge get at the moment. That’s less than I paid for a 500GB external drive just two years ago, and mine isn’t nearly as fast as this one. If you’re looking for a smaller or bigger drive, the 2TB variant of the Sandisk Extreme is also half off at Best Buy for only $220. Likewise, the 500GB model can be had for $80.