Corsair Flash Survivor Stealth review: A fast SSD disguised as a USB drive

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The Corsair Survivor Stealth may appear to be a rugged, weatherproof, off-road tested product Chopsticks. In fact, it’s an armored 10Gbps USB SSD that’s much faster than a regular thumb drive. In fact, the internals are NVMe, so performance is definitely tipped in that direction, even if not to the same degree as a larger external 10Gbps SSD.

What features does the Corsair Survivor Stealth have?

The Survivor Stealth is a corrugated black cylinder about 3 inches long and about 1 inch wide at its widest point, the soft rubber grips on each end of the device. Basically, it’s a sturdy metal tube with a USB thumb drive securely sealed inside. The secured drive can be removed from the case by turning the end cap with the lanyard hole.

Although the drive isn’t IP rated (Ingress Protection – an expensive process), I have no doubt it’s as water and dustproof as any drive you’ll find. I flushed vigorously in the sink and not a drop of water entered the tube. Being an SSD, it’s virtually immune to shock, and I dropped it from 8 feet several times to test this theory. No problem.

Further reading: best external drive

I’m not sure it would survive being run over by a car, and I don’t usually test products this way. However, given its shape, it’s not impossible.

Although the Survivor Stealth is a 10Gbps, USB 3.0, Type-A connector thumb drive, its internals are NVMe. As a result, its performance is more similar to the external SSDs we reviewed than to regular USB pen drives.

Not really a complaint, but I would have liked to see a survivor that floated and was rendered in bright colors. Put it in water and it will sink (which can be a good or bad thing), and black can be a difficult color to identify in many environments. Maybe an aquatic survivor?

How much does the Corsair Survivor Stealth cost?

The Survivor Stealth comes in 20/32GB, 25/64GB, 30/128GB, 55/256GB, 100/512GB versions, and the 155/1TB version I tested. The prices are approximately 62.5 cents, 39 cents, 23 cents, 21.5 cents, 19.5 cents and 15.5 cents per GB respectively. Yes, prices start from the 128GB model.

Unless you’re really stingy, go for the 128GB or larger Survivor Stealth.

How fast is the Corsair Survivor Stealth?

In synthetic benchmarks and a small amount of data, the 1TB Survivor Stealth performed well for a 10Gbps thumb drive SSD. That is, it cannot match SK hynix tube T31this is still the fastest USB flash drive we’ve tested to date.

Please note that PNY Professional Elite V2 The one pictured is the 256GB model, which partially explains its slower performance. For this reason, it is also excluded from the 450GB writes chart.

this C212 Team Being a 5Gbps product, slower results are expected. However, it’s a faster-than-average thumb drive and does a good job comparing base 5Gbps to 10Gbps performance – so it’s included.

In the CrystalDiskMark 8 random write test, the Survivor Stealth’s performance is closer to that of the top-end Tube T31.

However, our 1TB Survivor Stealth was indeed quite fast during an actual 48GB transfer, indicating that a small amount of NAND is allocated as a secondary cache.

The good news is that its cache write speed is still around 275MBps, which isn’t the worst we’ve seen in an SSD by a long shot.

The 450GB write speed slowed down significantly earlier, to the same 275MBps, which took over 30 minutes. That’s not as miserable as the 5Gbps Teamgroup C212’s 125MBps which took over 50 minutes. Likewise, the Tube T31 remains unchallenged in USB stick performance among the drives we’ve tested.

Overall, the Survivor Stealth’s performance is adequate for most tasks and far better than a regular thumb drive. That said, its main appeal is its ruggedness and weatherproofing.

Should you buy the Corsair Survivor Stealth?

If you need an ultra-rugged USB stick that’s significantly faster than the plethora of 400MBps/5Gbps types you’ll find on the market, the Survivor Stealth is pretty much your best bet. As I said, despite the lack of IP certification, it should hold up well to abuse and the elements.

On the other hand, if you are purely interested in performance, consider SK hynix tube T31its cost is also significantly lower, about $90 for 1TB.