SCIENCE & TECH: 2TB SSD deal: Save on our favorite rugged portable SSD

Best Buy’s Tech Fest sale is on – and while I’m seeing some discounts on the site, you might want to give this portable SSD deal a miss.

One of our top portable drives is down to $350 (was $460) right now. But I’ve spotted it selling for even cheaper over at Amazon, where the SanDisk Extreme 2TB SSD is selling for $290.

This is one of our favorite drives, and has been for years. As a general purpose rugged SSD, it ticks all the boxes most people need. Read speeds can reach up to 1050 MB/s, and the device has an IP65 rating, making it dust and water resistant.

When we benchmarked this drive, we found it delivered excellent overall performance at a low price (and it’s available in 1TB, 4TB, and 8TB variants, too).

• See the whole Best Buy’s Tech Fest Sale

Today’s top SanDisk portable SSD deal

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In our review, we called it “hands-down one of the best external SSDs (rugged or not) on the market.”

Speed-wise, it showed good numbers when we benchmarked it using USB-C, where it’s capable of hitting read speeds up to 1050 MB/s and write speeds of 1,000MB/s. Not the fastest in the world, but more than enough for most professionals.

The sleek, rugged design with its IP65 rating means it’s spill-proof and sealed to prevent dust ingress.

After putting the SanDisk Extreme through its paces, we concluded: “When used with a USB Type-C cable, the SanDisk Extreme rises above the competition with some stellar numbers. The design and form factor are spot on and while we have one reservation regarding the bundled cable, you can’t go wrong at this price.”

For more picks, check out our guides to the best portable SSD and the best rugged drives.