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Tech · SK hynix · 2023

SK hynix Beetle X31

A DRAM-equipped drive from a flash maker, with a shorter warranty and a lower ceiling than rivals.

No Mac has the port the fastest drives need — #3

Overall

8.0

out of 10

Axis scores

Tech is scored on these 5 axes. The total is their plain average — nothing is weighted.

SK hynix Beetle X31 — axis scores out of 10Horizontal bar chart of editorial scores out of 10 across 5 axes. Bars run from a shared zero baseline; longer is better. SK hynix Beetle X31: Performance 8.2, Value 7.8, Durability 7.4, Ease of use 8.4, Design 8.4.PerformanceSK hynix Beetle X31 — Performance 8.2 out of 108.2ValueSK hynix Beetle X31 — Value 7.8 out of 107.8DurabilitySK hynix Beetle X31 — Durability 7.4 out of 107.4Ease of useSK hynix Beetle X31 — Ease of use 8.4 out of 108.4DesignSK hynix Beetle X31 — Design 8.4 out of 108.4Editorial score out of 10 — higher is better
  • Performance — How well it does the core job
  • Value — What the same money buys elsewhere
  • Durability — Failure and fade reports past the one-year mark
  • Ease of use — Setup, daily operation, cleaning, maintenance
  • Design — Build quality and how it sits in a room

Specs

Interface
USB 3.2 Gen 2
Shell
Aluminum, no ingress rating
Capacities
512 GB to 2 TB
Warranty
3 years limited

As published by the manufacturer. We didn't measure these ourselves.

Is it for you

Buy it if

  • Copying thousands of small files rather than a few enormous ones
  • A mixed household of newer and older machines, plus a console
  • You want first-party flash without the armored-drive bulk

Skip it if

  • You need more than the capacity ceiling of this line
  • A three-year warranty is short for what you keep on it
  • The drive will be carried anywhere dusty or wet

The specification that matters here is one most listings bury: this drive has a DRAM cache, and most drives near it do not. That does not change the headline sequential number, which is the same ceiling every Gen 2 drive shares. What it changes is the awkward work — thousands of small files, a photo library with its sidecars, a project folder full of cache directories — where a cacheless drive slows to a crawl and this one does not. Reviewer coverage consistently puts it near the top of its interface class on mixed workloads for exactly that reason.

What arrives in the box is the other quiet advantage. Both cable types are included, so an older machine with only rectangular ports works at full speed on day one rather than after a trip to buy an adapter, and there is a soft case for the drive as well. Small thing, and it is the difference between using the drive that evening and not.

The maker is a flash manufacturer that only recently started selling finished consumer drives, and the apparatus around the hardware has not caught up. The warranty runs three years where most of the alternatives here run five, which on a storage device is a real gap rather than a marketing one. There is no encryption manager, no backup scheduler, and no drive utility to speak of. If those matter, this is not the drive.

The capacity ceiling is the other limit worth checking before ordering, because it sits well below what the rest of this comparison offers, and buying storage you will outgrow in a year is a false economy. Anyone consolidating a large library should look elsewhere on the page.

Physically it is anodised aluminum with a rounded back, which feels good in a hand and stacks badly with flat gear in a bag. The metal does its job as a heat sink under long writes. There is no ingress rating and no rubber anywhere, so this is a drive for a desk, a laptop bag, and a living room console, and not one for a worksite.

Last updated . The scoring method is on how we rank.