Kingston had announced plans at the 2018 CES for a high-performance external SSD targeting the gaming market. The HyperX Savage EXO USB 3.1 Gen 2 SSD went on sale last week. Read on for an in-depth look at the performance profile of the drive and its position in a highly competitive market segment.

Kingston's HyperX Savage EXO SSD falls into the second category. It puts a M.2 2280 SATA SSD behind a SATA-to-USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C board and encloses them in a stylish case to target gamers. Kingston claims speeds of up to 500 MBps reads / 480 MBps writes, and a 20% reduction in game load times when used with leading game consoles. Does the product deliver on its claims, and more importantly, how does it fare against alternatives in the market?