Having an external SSD is highly convenient when traveling, and as I started going back to events in 2025, I collated all the drives I have to see which would be best. There's been a steady rise in stick SSD drives in recent years; I used SK Hynix's Tube T31 last year, and it was pretty great — while it looks identical a regular USB drive, it houses an SSD inside, and is able to deliver 1000MB/s transfers. But the drive I ended up using the most over the course of 2025 is TeamGroup's X1 Max. TeamGroup debuted the drive in Q2 2024, and the SSD is now available globally. The base 256GB model costs $28 on Amazon, and the 512GB variant is $53 as of writing. The model I tested is the 1TB version, and that's available for $73 on Amazon. By contrast, Samsung's T7 Portable — the best-selling external SSD by some margin — costs $99. (Image credit: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central) The distinctive design feature of the X1 Max is that it looks like a regular flash drive. SK Hynix's Tube T31 is noticeably bigger and bulkier than the X1 Max, and there's just no way to tell by looking at the X1 Max that you're getting a 1TB SSD; TeamGroup deserves a lot of credit for the sleek design of the SSD. (Image credit: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central) Another thing the brand nailed is the connectivity; the X1 Max has the standard USB-A connector at one end, but you also get a USB-C port on the other side, giving it much better versatility. This was an annoyance on the Tube T31, but there are no problems in this regard with the X1 Max; in the four months I had the drive, I used it with the iPhone 16 Pro Max, Pixel 9 Pro XL, Vivo X200 Pro, Honor Magic 7 Pro, Find X8 Pro, iPad Pro M4, and an assortment of Windows devices including my gaming rig. (Image credit: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central) In all that time, I didn't have any issues whatsoever with the drive, and it's this versatility that makes the X1 Max stand out, and why I use it as my to-go external drive while traveling. It's significantly smaller than other external SSDs, and the fact that you can just plug it in to any device without having to use a cable makes it highly convenient. (Image credit: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central) Measuring 6.3cm and coming in at just 12g, the X1 Max is small and light enough that you can take anywhere, and portability is not an issue. If anything, I had to leave it in a side pocket on my bag so it wouldn't get lost. The shell itself is made out of aluminum, and the connectors on either end get a plastic cap to protect against dust. (Image credit: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central) The drive gets up to 1000MB/s when reading data, and it is able to hit 900MB/s during writes. I had no problems moving hundreds of gigabytes of photos and videos from phones, documents and other vital data from my Windows devices, and assorted multimedia to and from phones and tablets. (Image credit: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central) The only quibble is that the drive gets hot during extended transfer sessions; this is often the case with most external SSDs, and while TeamGroup says the X1 Max uses an aluminum alloy cooling solution to deliver better thermals, it's still quite hot. The write cache is quite limited, so if you're transferring over 40GB of data at once, you will see a decline in the bandwidth. This isn't an issue most of the time, but it was slightly slower than other stick SSDs I tested when transferring videos out of my phone. Be an expert in 5 minutes Get the latest news from Android Central, your trusted companion in the world of Android Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors There's no bundled software either, and you miss out on password protection, so if you need to safeguard sensitive data, you'll need to use a custom solution. The X1 Max uses the USB 3.2 Gen2 x1 standard, and I didn't see any problems getting the drive to connect to just about any platform. Honestly, it's for this reason that I used the X1 Max so much in 2025, and having traveled to four countries and using the drive extensively, it still looks pristine — I have no doubt that this thing is built to last. (Image credit: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central) Ultimately, that's why I like the X1 Max over similar options that are starting to become available. It's light enough that you don't even notice it, has both USB-C and USB-A connectors, and does a reliable job connecting to phones, tablets, Windows, macOS devices, handheld consoles like the Steam Deck, and just about anything else. It's also a solid value if you're interested in getting the 1TB variant, and