Apacer AS723 External SSD Review

The Apacer AS723 SSD is an external drive that offers high-speed, safe, and portable storage. Aimed at those shooting in particularly challenging conditions, the AS723 is a lightweight solution that can withstand hefty pressure and significant falls without failing. However, with so many rugged external SSD solutions already available on the market, the Apacer AS723 is up against tough competition. This is why we’ve tested the AS723 SSD rigorously to see how it performs compared to other alternative external SSDs.

The Apacer AS723 looks to rival competitor options such as the Samsung T9 or Crucial X10 Pro, two drives that offer similar read and write speeds and are designed for use on the go in demanding shooting settings. In this review, we’ll assess the Apacer AS723 against a series of criteria, such as its specs and design, to see where it stands versus other portable solutions.

Specification

Looking at the specs, the Apacer AS723 portable SSD is relatively similar to other market-leading external solutions. It interfaces using USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C, which offers up to 20Gbps of bandwidth. Compared to traditional NVMe drives, the read and write speeds are notably slower, which is a limitation of the USB interface. Despite this, the Apacer AS723 can still compete with top-end external drives.

This drive comes in four capacities, from 512GB to 4TB at the maximum. The drive we’re looking at today is 1TB in size, but it’s good to know there are alternative versions for those who need more or less storage space.

Regarding speeds, the Apacer AS723 caps out at 2000MB/s across the reads and writes, roughly translating to 2GB/s. While 2000MB/s isn’t close to the speeds we can see from Gen4 and Gen5 SSDs, Apacer claims this is enough to upload a 10-minute 8K video in just three seconds. While this will vary depending on the host settings, file transfers are speedy in our experience with external SSDs.

Apacer offers a five-year warranty as standard with the AS723 drive but does not provide TBW ratings for any of the capacities. Vendors will generally honour the warranty if the storage has seen normal usage, but a TBW (terabytes written) spec indicates how much has been written to the drive over time. It would be nice to see a TBW rating for the AS723, as it represents the endurance of storage much clearer. Additionally, because this drive is geared towards cameras likely to use high-resolution footage, a TBW rating would indicate when an SSD like this might fail.

Apacer AS723 Design

The Apacer AS273 is a small form factor portable SSD measuring 79.1mm long, 44mm wide, and 8.5mm deep. Compared to other portable SSDs we’ve reviewed, like the Crucial X10 Pro and Samsung T9 portable, the AS723 is the smallest of the three. Because of its size, it is relatively easy to hide away inside a bag, and it is compatible with a massive range of mounting options.

This drive utilises a grey metal chassis to protect the internals. Aesthetically, it isn’t the most exciting drive to look at. Apacer has opted for a more minimalist approach to the style, which is excusable as this SSD is geared towards professionals. However, like the Samsung T9, it would be nice to see a rugged protector or cover around the drive, demonstrating its reliability and robustness against drops and falls.

It’s worth highlighting that Apacer notes the AS723 can withstand a fall of up to 1.22 metres and is pressure-resistant up to 1.5kg. While this likely isn’t a necessary feature for most prospective buyers, it’s a unique addition to the spec sheet that makes the AS723 stand out compared to other external SSDs.

Overall, the design of the Apacer AS723 isn’t impressive or aesthetically pleasing. However, its size and shape make it incredibly easy to stow away, not hindering luggage or adding too much weight to a bag.

Are Portable SSDs Worth It?

While desktop NVMe SSDs are highly popular among professionals, they aren’t particularly portable. So, portable SSDs are a solid solution for those looking to edit videos on the go or record high-resolution footage. However, the most significant caveat of picking up a portable SSD typically is the price point. While these drives are considerably weaker than their Gen4 and Gen5 counterparts, the added benefit of portability typically makes them quite expensive.

For example, a 4TB Samsung T9 is around $400 at the time of writing. While this isn’t unreasonable, these portable drives aren’t the most affordable. Unfortunately, though, there aren’t many alternatives. Professional cameras such as a Blackmagic 6K use either CFexpress or offer USB-C for external drives. While you could store high-resolution footage on an external hard drive, hundreds of gigabytes of footage would take hours to transfer, which is impractical. This means that external SSDs are one of the only solutions for portable setups.

Portable SSDs are incredibly worth picking up for seasoned travellers who regularly work with large files while on the go. As one of the only forms of storage that can offer blazing-fast read and write speeds, external SSDs are a must-have for those with a constantly moving setup. But remember that these drives are considerably more expensive than their desktop alternatives, especially for large-capacity SSDs.

Thermals

Every SSD we test is benchmarked using the CrystalDiskMark application. While CrystalDiskMark is running, we also use HWMonitor in the background to monitor temperatures and ensure the rated speeds are correct.

During our benchmarking, we saw an average temperature of around 35°C in the latter half of the test. After this, the Apacer AS723’s temperature increased to 40°C, which it remained at for the rest of the run. Because this is an enclosed drive, there’s no way to tell if the AS723 uses any form of passive or active cooling. However, I would assume that this drive is likely using some small heatsinks to dissipate heat better, as flash chips can get quite hot. However, the low read and write speed allows this drive to run cooler than desktop NVMe options.

Regardless, the average of 40°C doesn’t concern us. This was during 99.7% usage, indicating that the temperature isn’t likely to increase much more over prolonged loads.

Performance

Across all of our SSD tests, we use CrystalDiskMark to assess storage performance. This application is well known for its accuracy in providing consistent read and write speed performance. We use the stock settings on CrystalDiskMark, which tests a drive with a 1GiB file with five passes, returning and updating the sequential and random speeds with each pass.

Note: During our benchmarking, we struggled to hit the initial read speeds because we were using a USB-A to USB-C adapter to plug it into a 20Gbps port. This external SSD does not work with an adapter and requires a USB Type-C to C cable. Adapters will tank the performance significantly.

During our tests of the Apacer AS723, CrystalDiskMark reported a maximum read speed of 2005MB/s, while writes sat at 1945MB/s. These align pretty closely with Apacer’s advertised speeds. The AS723 can reach up to 2000MB/s across reads and writes. Our benchmarking results show a similar result on the reads, while the writes are slightly lower (55MB/s, specifically).

While our write results are slightly weaker than the advertised rating, they are well within the 10%+- margin we allow for each drive. Generally, most SSDs tend to see around a 50-100MB/s loss or gain in performance, so we’re glad to see the AS273 align with drives we’ve tested previously.

Compared to the other portable SSDs we’ve tested, the Apacer AS723 is the best-performing drive. Admittedly, the T9 Portable and X10 Pro have speeds that are very similar, and there are only a few MB/s between them. However, it’s impressive to see such strong results from this drive.

Conclusion