Portable flash-based storage solutions are one of the growing segments in the direct-attached storage market. The emergence of 3D NAND with TLC and QLC has brought down the cost of such drives. NAND manufacturers like Western Digital, Samsung, and Crucial/Micron who also market portable SSDs have an inherent advantage in terms of vertical integration. However, the current pace of progress in flash memory has led to competitively priced offerings even from vendors who need to buy flash in the open market. ADATA and HP (Biwin / Multipointe) are two such vendors in this space. Today, we are taking a look at six different portable SSDs - three each from ADATA and HP - forming the bulk of their 2020 portfolio of external flash storage solutions.