Best Portable Storage in Australia (2026)

The Crucial X10 2TB is the natural successor to the X10 Pro after the latter ran into availability issues on Amazon AU, and it's actually a notable upgrade in some areas. The IP rating has stepped up to IP65 (over IP55 on the Pro), drop protection now reaches 3 metres, and the smaller, lighter chassis is easier to live with in a camera bag or backpack. Read speeds are unchanged at 2,100MB/s over USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, which is enough to transfer a 100GB folder of 4K footage in around a minute, and it works seamlessly across PC, Mac, PlayStation, Xbox, Android, and iPad. AES 256-bit hardware encryption protects your data on the road. It's keenly priced for 2TB of Gen 2x2 performance, and Crucial backs it with a 5-year limited warranty. The main trade-off remains the lack of dedicated drive-management software like Samsung Magician, but for most users plug-and-play simplicity is exactly what they want.

This slot used to hold a SanDisk Extreme, and it is worth being direct about why it no longer does: that drive is a 2020 design from the Extreme and Extreme Pro V2 generation, the one behind years of sudden total-failure reports, a firmware fix that reduced rather than eliminated the problem, and a US class action. Six years on, it is not a drive to recommend to anyone who cares about the data on it. The Samsung T9 is the straightforward answer. It runs USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 at up to 2,000MB/s sequential read, roughly double the SanDisk's 1,050MB/s, which is the difference between waiting on a card dump and not thinking about it. You need a Gen 2x2 port to see the full figure - on a standard 10Gbps port it settles around 1,000MB/s, still perfectly quick - and Samsung's Dynamic Thermal Guard keeps speeds from collapsing partway through a long transfer, which is where cheaper drives fall apart. The rubberised shell survives a 3m drop, hardware AES 256-bit encryption is built in, and Samsung Magician handles firmware and health monitoring properly. It is not rugged in the IP-rated sense, so if you need dust and water sealing the T7 Shield above it is the better fit, and 1TB at this price is not the cheapest per gigabyte on the list. For reliable everyday speed, though, this is the one to buy.

The Lexar SL500 is built for creators who need speed and hate bulk. Over a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 port it reads at up to 2,000MB/s and writes at up to 1,800MB/s, and it's only 43g and a few millimetres thick, so it can live on the back of a camera rig or an iPhone recording ProRes video. TechRadar rated it 4.5 out of 5 and called its heat management impressive for the size. Two things to know before buying: most Macs and many laptops lack Gen 2x2, so there it runs at about half its rated speed, and there's no shock or water rating. It comes in capacities up to 4TB, this 2TB model is sold and shipped by Amazon AU, and owners rate it 4.6 stars from nearly 600 reviews.