It’s time for a look as the next-generation of portable SSD tech – the new LaCie Rugged SSD Pro5 with Thunderbolt 5 and break-neck speeds. While not the very first portable Thunderbolt 5 SSD out of the gate from one of our favorite brands – that nod goes to the OWC Envoy Ultra, the new LaCie is certainly one of the first new premium models sporting the same date transfer protocol as those ports on your new M4 Mac mini or M4 MacBook Pro (among other things). While the new LaCie Rugged SSD Pro5 did just arrive in our offices, we do have some early hands-on impressions to share.
LaCie’s new Thunderbolt 5 LaCie Rugged SSD Pro
The new drive from LaCie – a Seagate brand for those who might not be familiar – lands with a very similar rubber-encrusted frame designed by Neil Poulton we have seen from the Rugged lineup in the past. After the classic vibrant orange rubber-wrapped models – perhaps the most universally-recognized of the bunch – were superseded by the all-black Thunderbolt models, the latest from the Seagate brand is turning to a royal blue treatment on its latest high-end portable storage solution.
This rubber enclosure – apparently consisting of 45% recycled materials – delivers three-meter drop resistance as well accommodating for an IP68-rating against dust and water. It doesn’t include any sort of a cap for the USB-C port though.
The new LaCie Rugged SSD Pro5 certainly seems to live up to its name in the data protection department, but how fast does its Thunderbolt 5 throughput action actually run? Well, fast. Or at least it does according to what it says on the box.
Seagate says the new drive is “the industry’s fastest scratch disk for creative professionals,” clocking in at an impressive read/write speed of up to 6700/5300MB/s “with 50GB cache for streamlining workflows.” After cache speeds amount to 5000MB/s read and 1800MB/s write.
Clearly this is a drive specifically tailored towards speed demons in the professional creative fields working with super high-res footage. Or just anyone looking to empty out their wallet on a sweet-looking blue portable SSD that looks sort of like a mini rubber life boat – I actually really like the design though. It’s about 3/4 as long as an iPhone 16 Pro and slightly smaller in width (roughly 0.67 by 2.56 by 3.86 inches)
While I haven’t had a chance to really put it through its paces just yet, you’re clearly going to need a machine that can support these sorts of speeds to hit the max numbers here. But it is, of course, compatible with previous-gen Thunderbolt standards as well as “USB 10/20/40Gbps USB-C hosts on Windows, macOS, and iPad Pro devices that provide a 15W minimum.”
My initial takeaways are that LaCie and Mr. Poulton are delivering another pretty drive here. This one is completely-wrapped in the blue rubberized housing and I’m totally here for it. It doesn’t seem to be rated to safeguard its internals any better than most options out there, but it certainly feels like it’s going to be able to – don’t worry I’ll be testing out that 3-meter drop protection soon.
But perhaps the most obvious takeaway here is that this is a drive specifically only for those heavy on the wallet or someone that literally needs these sorts of specs in the field and back at the editing bay – this is a very expensive portable SSD from a brand that, historically speaking, doesn’t see price drops nearly as often as the competition.
You’re going to have to fork over $399.99 for the 2TB model and a whopping $599.99 for the 6TB. But if you do, it looks like you’re going to have one sweet, future-proofed portable storage solution on your hands.
It has yet to appear on Amazon, but we can already see listings populating at pro tech shops like B&H.
Expect a full review in the coming weeks after I have had a chance to abuse this thing a bit and move some serious weight on and off it a bunch of times to ensure it remains reliable.
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