Pros & Cons
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- Tiny and lightweight
- Competitively priced
- Solid benchmark scores
- Five-year warranty
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- Lacks USB-C-to-USB-C cable
- No 4TB option
- Lacks hardware-based encryption
Kingston XS1000 External SSD Specs
| Bus Type | PCI Express 3.0 x4 |
| Capacity (Tested) | 2 |
| Controller Maker | Silicon Motion |
| Interface (Computer Side) | USB Type-A or Type-C |
| Internal Form Factor | Not Applicable |
| Internal or External | External |
| NAND Type | TLC |
| Rated Maximum Sequential Read | 1050 |
| Rated Maximum Sequential Write | 1000 |
| Warranty Length | 5 |
The Kingston XS1000 External SSD ($64.99 for 1TB, $109.99 for 2TB as tested) is an affordable and eminently portable external solid-state drive (SSD) with a USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface that is compatible with most any Windows, Mac, or Linux computer. Its benchmark scores were typical for a Gen 2 SSD, which translates to solid file transfer performance. Just be careful when taking the XS1000 on the road, because it lacks the ruggedization features of some other external SSDs, and it does not provide hardware-based encryption. For these features, you'll need to spend a bit more on a drive like the Editors' Choice-winning Crucial X9 Pro.
The Design: Tiny, Yet Capable
The XS1000 measures 0.5 by 1.3 by 2.7 inches (HWD) and weighs barely an ounce. It resembles a wide USB thumb drive. It is nearly identical in design to its sibling, the Kingston XS2000, except that the XS1000 is matte black while the XS2000 has a silver-colored top and bottom, and it lacks the XS2000's removable black rubberized sleeve to protect it from drops. The XS1000 also lacks an IP (ingress protection) rating, meaning that the drive offers no particular protection from water or dust. It also lacks the virtually uncrackable 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption found on many other external SSDs.
A USB-C port resides in the middle of one of the XS1000's short ends, and a USB-C-to-USB-A cable is included. (Peculiarly, Kingston doesn't also include a USB-C-to-USB-C cable or an adapter.) The XS1000's USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface should be compatible with most any laptop or desktop computer with a USB-C or USB-A port. The XS2000 supports the faster USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 standard, but to avail yourself of its blazing throughput you will need either a compatible computer (few models, even recent ones, are), or to add a Gen 2x2 expansion card. Check out our USB-C explainer for more on the differences among the USB interfaces.
The XS1000 comes preformatted in the exFAT file format, and is compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux, and ChromeOS systems. Kingston offers it in capacities of 1TB and 2TB. Some other high-profile external SSDs, like the Crucial X9 Pro and the Samsung Portable SSD T9, have 4TB options, while the Samsung Portable SSD T7 Touch and the Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield also max out at 2TB. The SK Hynix Beetle X31 is limited to 1TB.
Kingston backs the XS1000 with a five-year warranty, which is common with external SSDs, although some, like the SK Hynix Beetle X31, are limited to three years.
Testing the Kingston XS1000: Typical Gen 2 Performance
We test external SSDs using PC Labs' Windows 10 storage testbed, a desktop built on an Asus Prime X299 Deluxe motherboard with an Intel Core i9-10980XE Extreme Edition CPU, housed in a SilverStone case. The system has 48GB of DDR4 Corsair Dominator RAM clocked to 3,600MHz, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB graphics card. We use the motherboard's 10Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 port for testing compatible drives such as the Crucial X9 Pro; for Gen 2x2 drives, we test using a 2x2 port added via an Orico PCIe expansion card.
We put the XS1000 through our usual suite of external solid-state drive benchmarks, including Crystal DiskMark 6.0, PCMark 10 Storage, Blackmagic's Disk Speed Test, and our own folder transfer test. The first two are run on the PC with the drive formatted in NTFS, and the latter two on an Apple MacBook Pro using exFAT. Crystal DiskMark's sequential speed tests provide a traditional measure of drive throughput, simulating best-case, straight-line transfers of large files. The PCMark 10 Storage test measures an SSD's readiness for a wide variety of everyday tasks.
Comparison drives include most of the recent USB 3.2 Gen 2 SSDs we have reviewed, as well as the XS1000's USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 counterpart, the Kingston XS2000.
The XS1000's Crystal DiskMark and Blackmagic speed scores were all within the very narrow range of scores we see for the vast majority of Gen 2 external SSDs we have tested, and its folder-copy results matched most of the other drives. (Its read scores were near the top of their respective groups, with write scores in the middle.) The XS1000's PCMark 10 Storage score was in the middle of the pack for a Gen 2 SSD.
Verdict: Modest Features for a Modest Price
Modestly priced for a USB 3.2 Gen 2 external SSD, the featherweight Kingston XS1000 can easily fit in your pocket—heck, you could fit five of them in a pocket, with room to spare. The XS1000 churned out typical speeds for its ilk in our testing, with its read speeds slightly better than write speeds. Unlike the Editors' Choice-winning Crucial X9 Pro, the XS1000 lacks ruggedization features as well as 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption, considered the gold standard in civilian-level encryption solutions.
If you don't need those features, and you don't require a high-capacity drive—the XS1000 maxes out at 2TB, while the X9 Pro and other recent external SSDs offer a 4TB versions—the XS1000 is an otherwise capable alternative and comes in at a very fair price.