Crucial X10 Pro review: Top-speed storage for less
Rival SSDs have a slight edge on performance, but the X10 Pro is an all-round winner
Pros
- Compact design and rugged construction
- Great value at all capacities
- High sequential read/write speeds
Cons
- Random read/write speeds could be improved
- A waste of money if you don’t have USB 3.2 Gen 2x2
Crucial offers some fast, rugged, attractively priced external SSDs, such as the X9 and X9 Pro – but those models are limited to a 10Gbits/sec USB connection, while many rival drives can go twice as fast courtesy of the USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 standard.
The X10 Pro is Crucial’s high-performance offering, boosting sequential read and write speeds from the 1050MB/sec of the X9 Pro to a massive 2GB/sec. How does it measure up to the mighty Samsung T9 or the Kingston XS2000? I’ve run it through our external storage tests and benchmarks to find out.
Crucial X10 Pro review: What do you get for the money?
The X10 Pro has a similar design to the X9 Pro, with the same compact 65 x 50mm footprint and 9.9mm thickness. It weighs a mere 42g; some sculpting on the edges minimises any remaining bulk, and there’s a handy hole for a lanyard in one corner. While the majority of the shell is a black powder-coated aluminium, the base has a rubberised surface to stop the drive slipping around and make it easier to grip.
Not only does the X10 Pro look and feel robust, it’s IP55-certified water, dust and sand resistant. It’s also drop-proof for up to 2 metres, albeit onto a carpeted, not concrete, floor. If you want a drive you can just bundle into a bag or pocket, this one can handle it without coming to harm.
The drive comes formatted in the widely supported exFAT format, but can be easily reformatted with APFS on MacOS and iOS devices, or NTFS for Windows 10 and Windows 11. It’s supplied with a short USB Type-C to Type-C cable; if need be you can use an adaptor to plug it into a Type-A socket, but the older connector only supports a maximum speed of 10Gbits/sec, erasing the drive’s advantage over the cheaper X9 Pro.
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Crucial X10 Pro review: How does it perform?
When hooked up to a test PC via a 20Gbits/sec USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 connection, the X10 Pro keeps pace with the competition. I saw it match high-performance leaders like the WD_Black P40 and Lexar SL500 on sequential read/write speeds, and it was actually faster than the Kingston XS2000 and Samsung T9 on read speeds – though the Samsung pulled ahead for write speeds.
For transferring large files from device to device or streaming UHD video, you’re not going to find anything significantly faster without switching to USB 4 or Thunderbolt 4 – and we’ve still yet to test any USB 4 SSDs.
When it comes to random read/write speeds – the kind of speeds that count if you’re running games or applications directly from the drive – the X10 Pro doesn’t quite keep up with the Kingston or the Samsung, but it’s still fast enough that you could use it without noticing any serious shortfall in performance.
To reiterate, to get these fantastic speeds you need a 20Gbits/sec USB socket. If you plug the drive into a regular USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, you’ll be effectively halving your sequential read and write speeds. Depending on your usage that might not be a problem, but if you’re not using the faster interface you might as well choose a cheaper SSD.
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Crucial X10 Pro review: Are there any useful extras?
Crucial provides its own SSD management tool, Storage Executive, to cover formatting, firmware updates, diagnostics and more. It also has a secure wipe option and a software cache feature, though the latter’s more useful for slower drives than a high-performance NVMe SSD.
The drive also comes with the Crucial edition of Acronis True Image, which gives you decent basic backup out of the box. However, the versions of Mylio Photos+ (photo library management) and Hedge OffShoot (file transfer) are 30- and 60-day trials. There’s also a month’s free subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud; that might be more interesting, but it will expire pretty quickly.
Crucial X10 Pro review: Should you buy it?
If your PC or laptop supports USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, with its top 20Gbits/sec transfer speed, the Crucial X10 Pro is an excellent choice of SSD. It’s cheaper than the Samsung T9 or the Kingston XS2000 at every capacity – by a substantial margin in some cases – while still providing the storage and speeds you need to handle media or transfer large files fast in a very compact, light and rugged form. Competing drives may have faster random read/write speeds, but the X10 Pro is a strong performer across the board, and comes with a few worthwhile add-ons too, making it one of the best external SSDs you can currently buy.