Ugreen 40Gbps M.2 Enclosure review

30-second review

There has been an explosion of USB 4.0 devices recently, suggesting that the time has come for this interface to shine.

These include a few external SSDs that can exploit USB 4.0's potential 40Gbps of bandwidth to deliver substantial file transfer speeds over USB 3.2.

The Ugreen 40Gbps M.2 enclosure is the flexible solution for those who want USB 4.0 connected SSDs, but aren't prepared to pay the premium for devices like the Nextorage NX-PS1PRO Series I recently reviewed.

Being a Ugreen design and build, this enclosure exudes a high quality of construction that's mostly aluminium, and a single screw is all that needs to be removed to get inside.

Designed to take any NVMe M.2 drives, including those made to 2230, 2232, 2260 and the common 2280 size, it can also handle capacities up to 8TB if you have any of those.

Once installed and reassembled, the drive should work like any USB-connected device, even if you don't have USB 4.0 ports. However, to get the most out of it, USB 4.0 ports are recommended.

The transfer speeds available will be dictated by the drive installed in the enclosure, but Ugreen quotes potential performance of up to 3,800Mb/s reads, and nearly 3,000MB/s writes using the full bandwidth of USB 4.0.

That's double the best speeds of USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 and four times the standard USB 3.2 Gen 2 performance most will be familiar with.

The only major caveat to this equipment is that Ugreen makes very similar 10Gbps and 20Gbps versions of this enclosure, and mixing them up is easy. The lower specification designs are much cheaper, so it's worth checking that it's the 40Gbps model and not just assuming it's a bargain. A strong alternative to the best portable SSDs, this device does what the maker claims.

Ugreen 40Gbps M.2 Enclosure: Pricing and availability

• How much does it cost? £99/$130
• When is it out? Available now
• Where can you get it? Sold through online retailers and also directly from Ugreen.

The variation in pricing of this product can be significant, based on where you source it from.

Direct from Ugreen, it costs £99 in the UK and $129.99 in the USA.

However, from Amazon.com, American customers can get it for a much more affordable price of $71.99. European Amazon pricing matches Ugreen's direct prices, but it is possible to get it through a Chinese retailer, like AliExpress if you are willing to wait for delivery.

There are cheaper USB 4.0 SSD enclosures from lesser brands, but for the quality of construction and attention to detail, this unit is worth what Ugreen is asking.

• Value: 4 / 5

Ugreen 40Gbps M.2 Enclosure: Specs

Ugreen 40Gbps M.2 Enclosure: Design

• Aluminium enclosure
• Any NVMe size
• Active cooling

Having experienced many external drive enclosures, I find this Ugreen USB 4.0 design distinctive in several positive ways.

The enclosure comes with both cables for USB-A and USB-C, although the USB-C option offers the best performance.

To install a drive requires that the enclosure be opened, and to do that, you must first remove a silicon protective bumper and then remove a single screw to slide the cover off. This is all remarkably easy, and once inside, installation is incredibly easy.

Ugreen provides a small screwdriver to open the case and also remove the screw that holds the drive in position, and thoughtfully an extra screw is provided in the bag where the screwdriver comes from.

Threaded mounting holes are available for 2230, 2242, 2260 and the standard 2280-sized NVMe drives, and once a drive is mounted, a thermal pad can be used to extract heat from the drive to the metal lid of the enclosure.

That's one cooling measure, but a small fan under the drive also creates airflow to reduce the possibility of the drive overheating after prolonged use. The fan is only about 20mm across, but some active cooling is always preferable to an entirely passive design.

The limitations of this enclosure are that it won't accept a drive with a heatsink attached, as there isn't enough room for this, the thermal pad and the lid.

Once the drive is installed and the lid replaced, the whole assembly can be returned to its original position inside the rubber bumper, making it ready for travel.

The design is straightforward enough for most customers to install a drive (unless it's entirely the wrong type), is built to withstand some abrasive abuse, and protects the internal SSD.

The cables are only about 20cm long, but given the transfer speeds, making them longer often asks for trouble, a detail with which Ugreen will be most familiar.

The documentation quotes a maximum capacity of 4TB, although that may be because 8TB drives are relatively rare. While I can't confirm this, I'd be surprised if it didn't work with 8TB drives, as it seems to work with a wide selection of brands and drive sizes.

In terms of the objective of this exercise, this enclosure ticks almost all the boxes to provide a highly flexible solution that could be invaluable to those needing fast external storage.

• Design: 4.5 / 5

Ugreen 40Gbps M.2 Enclosure: Performance

• Needs USB 4.0
• Cache setting enhancements
• Mileage may vary

The obvious device to compare this enclosure to is the Nextorage NX-PS1PRO, a dedicated USB 4.0 external SSD. However, this isn't a true apples-to-apples comparison because you can put any drive in the enclosure. I chose to use a Kioxia Exceria Plus G3 1TB, which I bought specifically for this test.

The Plus G3 is rated for a sequential read speed of 5000MB/s, which is above the performance that 40Gbps USB can hope to achieve. The test environment was a GMKtec M7 Pro Mini PC, a machine with dedicated USB 4.0 ports.

The results, when compared, are a truly curious mix, with Ugreen taking the honours on some tests and Nextorage on others.

One big difference that needs to be mentioned is that for the Nextorage drive to operate fully, the device manager was necessary to set it into a special performance profile. This alters how the drive is cached, and without enabling this setting, it would not work well. The downside of using the Windows OS to cache the drive in this way is that it takes longer to disconnect it after use, and the drive might corrupt if there is a power loss while a write is underway.

Conversely, the Ugreen enclosure did not require any special settings to work and perform reasonably. In this breakdown, I've included both numbers for the enclosure, with the cache enabled on the left and the cache disabled on the right.

I chose to quote both results since not everyone has access to the device manager on business hardware or the knowledge to make changes.

But, once performance mode was activated, write performance jumped from 2237Mb/s to 3387MB/s, faster than the Nextorage drive on CrystalDiskMark. These improvements extended to every test, such that the Ugreen enclosure was the winner almost across the board.

This reveals that whatever NVMe drive Nextorage is used in its product, the Kioxia Exceria Plus G3 is superior. But it's worth noting that mileage may vary depending on what drive you install, and using cheaper Gen 3 drives may impact the overall speed experienced.

What's interesting to consider is that the combined cost of the enclosure and the Kioxia Exceria Plus G3 is around £150 in the UK. In contrast, the 1TB model of the Nextorage NX-PS1PRO is closer to £200. This differential becomes even more striking at 2TB, where the Ugreen enclosure and NVMe combined are roughly £200, whereas the Nextorage option is another £75 more.

What the Nextorage NX-PS1PRO offers is a drive that requires no assembly, but you can't upgrade that drive should you want a bigger one in the future.

Sometimes, USB SSD makers offer only basic software tools that you must download from the company website. But Ugreen hasn't included any. However, this device comes with no storage, and the installed drive could be from a wide range of brands, so this isn't a huge problem.

One important detail of this enclosure flexibility is highlighted by the lack of hardware encryption on the pre-assembled Nextorage NX-PS1PRO. On the Ugreen enclosure, the customer can decide if the drive has hardware encryption, depending on what is inside.

If hardware encryption isn't necessary, a cost-saving can be made with a cheaper mechanism.

• Performance: 4.5 / 5

Ugreen 40Gbps M.2 Enclosure: Verdict

In the coming months, many inexpensive USB 4.0 enclosures will be churned out of Chinese factories and priced well below what Ugreen is asking for in its enclosure.

I doubt many of them will be as well-engineered or built as this one, so I suggest paying that little bit extra for something where it is easier to change the drive and less likely to fail after being thrown in a laptop bag.

For any IT professional cloning NVMe drives between systems, Ugreen has delivered precisely what you want to complete the cloning process rapidly.

And, in the greater scheme of things, the cost is less than most 2TB NVMe drives directly from Ugreen. This enclosure will likely be the standard by which others are assessed.

Should I buy the Ugreen 40Gbps M.2 Enclosure?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

Nextorage NX-PS1PRO Series
One of the first USB 4.0 capable external SSDs available, the Nextorage NX-PS1PRO Series comes in 1TB, 2TB or 4TB capacities. But the unit is passively cooled, and the drives can't be replaced.

Read our full review of it here.

OWC Envoy Pro FX
If you have Thunderbolt 3 ports or intend to add this functionality soon, then the Envoy Pro FX might well be worth your time. A beautifully engineered external storage option that can provide exceptional performance in the right circumstances, the OWC Envoy Pro FX is effective if expensive.

Read our full review of the OWC Envoy Pro FX

We've also reviewed the fastest external SSDs around.