SanDisk Extreme Fit USB-C review: Ultra-compact storage tested on 4K video

The SanDisk Extreme Fit USB-C flash drive impressed the reporter with its ultra-compact design and impressive performance. As USB-A ports become obsolete, a compact USB-C drive like this fits seamlessly into modern setups. The 128GB model tested was the size of a thumbnail, a novel feature for storage devices.

During testing, the drive handled editing a 4K video directly off the device impressively well, with only minor slowdowns during heavy color grading. Even with two stacked 4K video clips playing simultaneously, performance remained smooth. For most users, heavy video editing would not be the primary use case—everyday file transfer speeds matter most.

Real-world throughput tests with a 25GB folder revealed fluctuations in transfer rates, dipping to around 25MB/s at times. Despite these fluctuations, the drive became warm to the touch, a common issue for tiny drives powered directly by the host device. The write process took 7 minutes and 10 seconds, while reading data back off the drive was incredibly fast, with sustained read speeds of 400MB/s.

Comparatively, transferring the same 25GB folder onto a portable Western Digital external hard drive took nearly the same time as the SanDisk's write time, but moving the folder back to the Mac took 5 minutes and 58 seconds. This demonstrates the superior performance packed into the SanDisk Extreme Fit USB-C drive's small form factor.