All SanDisk Extreme models are made according to the same visual template: the drive is sealed in a tight case made of rubberized plastic in black or dark blue. The front panel is dotted with small holes for ventilation, an orange edging runs along the body, and in the upper right corner there is a hole for attaching a carabiner.


Only the technical details differ. So, SanDisk Extreme models released before 2019 work using the USB-C 3.2 gen1 protocol, and their speeds are most often limited to numbers at the level of 440 – 550 MB / s. Newer drives use an NVMe interface and a more modern USB-C 3.2 gen2 port, and linear read and write speeds can reach 1000 – 2000 MB / s. Such models usually have the prefix Pro in the title.

Another important difference from many external SSDs is a rather serious proprietary software package with a concise interface and a bunch of really useful features. For example, using the SecureAccess application, the user can quickly backup the system, encrypt data from the entire disk, or create a secret area on the disk with 128-bit AES encryption, in which data will be hidden, like in a bank vault.