Orico K20 Mini Drive Review: Impressive Speeds in Small Form

Orico K20 Mini is a perfect companion for on-the-go content creators. This portable ultra-fast SSD is primarily designed for Apple iPhones (15 and above for ProRes Video recording), but it can also be employed on Android for added storage backup. The salient features include:

• This SSD has a thickness of just 7.5 mm and a weight of 45g.
• The ultra-slim SSD is MagSafe-enabled.
• It attaches using N52 magnets and 18N magnetic force.
• It is crafted from aerospace-grade aluminum alloy featuring a sleek, minimalist design that perfectly complements your Apple devices.
• It comes equipped with 4K Video-Ready Storage with capacity up to 2TB.
• The SSD has impressive read/write speeds of up to 2050MB/s for ultra-fast editing and backup.
• This versatile portable SSD is compatible with iOS, macOS, Windows, and Android.

I am taking a look at the 512GB variant that has a retail price of USD 99.99.

Specifications

The salient specifications include:

Model	K20 Mini
Color	Silver/Gold
Material	Aluminum Alloy
Dimension	78x60x7.5mm (LxWxH)
Capacity	512GB/1TB/2TB
User Interface	Type-C
Transfer Rate	20 Gbps
Cable Length	0.13 M

Packaging and Unboxing

The enclosure is shipped inside a paperboard packing material. The box has a blue and white color theme. The drive is placed inside a plastic container with accessories placed on the backside of the container.

The following are provided in the box:

• 1x Drive
• 1x User Guide
• 1x MagSafe Ring
• 1x USB Type-C Cable

Closer Look

The drive housing is made of space-grade aluminum alloy, and our sample has a silver color that suits the related iPhone color well. The drive has Orico branding on the front side. The model of the drive is also listed on the bottom. Yes, it is indeed ultra-thin, as it has a thickness of 7.5mm making it a perfect candidate for your Apple device, adding storage without even feeling a bulk on the backside of the device.

The drive has a USB Type-C port. You can see a USB-20 logo confirming that this drive is rated for 20 Gbps data transfer rates, meaning it is USB 3.2 Gen2x2. I got asked about the type of SSD used inside this drive. Since the drive attains 2106 MB/s sequential read speed, my guess is that Orico has employed a PCIe Gen 3 NVMe SSD in this product. Although PCIe Gen2 NVMe drives are also listed at 20 Gbps speed, they tend to operate somewhere between 1600 to 1900MB/s due to protocol overhead. A blue LED indicator is also visible. It lights up, showing the data read/write activity on the drive.

The backside of the drive has a ring-style portion confirming the MagSafe magnetic mechanism. It uses N52 magnets with 18N magnetic force for a perfect fit on your MagSafe mobile phones. The product is made in China. I could not get the power rating of the drive. It will use the power from your mobile phone to remain active while connected to the phone.

Orico has provided a MagSafe Ring as well. One side of this ring has a self-adhesive tape, whereas the other side has a magnetic mount. This would make your non-MagSafe devices fully compatible with this drive.

The picture is only for illustration on how to use the ring mount. The self-adhesive side will face the mobile device, whereas the magnetic side will face the K20 Mini.

Orico has supplied a premium ribbon style USB Type-C to Type-C cable. It also has USB-20 If logo confirming its rated speed of 20 Gbps.

Attaching the device to your latest Android/Apple is as simple as connecting the cable to the device and drive and attaching the drive on the backside of the device. You are good to go. However, the older models may need an OTG cable or adapter.

Test Setup

I have tested the drive on Samsung Galaxy S24 as well as on the PC.

I did not need to do anything on S24 to read this drive. It pops up as soon as it is connected to the phone.

However, the major limitation of Android is that it does not let you write directly to the external storage. A workaround is to use third-party software like MCPro24FPS. Keep in mind these apps are not free, but they allow you to write directly on the external storage.

The following configuration is used to test the performance of the enclosure:

• AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
• GIGABYTE X870 AORUS Stealth ICE
• Biwin DW100 RGB @ 8000MHz CL38 32GB DDR5 Kit
• Maxsun i-Craft Arc B580 for Display
• Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 2TB NVMe SSD
• Be quiet! Straight Power 11 1000W Platinum PSU
• MSI MAG PANO 100L PZ

I have used the USB 4.0 port on the motherboard for this testing. Microsoft Windows 11 24H2 is used for the testing.

The drive pops up without any settings required in the Windows environment. Crystal Disk Info shows the firmware version Y0210A. The drive uses the UASP interface for power. The drive supports S.M.A.R.T, NCQ, Trim, and GPL features.

Test Results

Let’s start with CrystalDiskMark.

The drive did 2106 MB/s in sequential read and 1806 MB/s in sequential write, confirming the rated speeds of 2050 MB/s. The random 4K stats are quite good as well for this portable drive. The drive did 1.97GB/s in read and 1.68GB/s in read department using ATTO disk benchmark. The most important test is Blackmagic Disk Benchmark as it shows the drive’s capability to work with different formats on different video compression standards including ProRes. Orico K20 Mini passed the test with flying colors.

Thermals

I put the drive in a continuous 18-minute sequential read and write mode using Crystal Disk Benchmark. The drive reached 60°C at an ambient temperature of 31.7°C. While this means nothing on the PC, when using this drive on a mobile phone with direct operations on it, the temperature is high.

Conclusion

Orico K20 Mini is a fantastic drive that features an ultra-slim outlook. It is designed for Apple iPhone devices, hence it comes supporting the MagSafe attachment. Ultra-Slim refers to a 7.5mm thickness of the drive with 68x60mm (LxW), making it an ideal fit for the supported mobile device. Android users need not worry, as Orico has provided a MagSafe ring in the box as well. It has self-adhesive on one side and the magnetic mount on the other end.

Speaking of the core functionality, the K20 Mini comes in 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB capacities operating at a whopping 2050MB/s speed. In our testing, this drive reaches 2106MB/s speed, which makes me think that this drive hosts a PCIe Gen 3 NVMe SSD instead of a PCIe Gen 2 NVMe. However, the rest of the tests showed this drive operating at 20Gbps speed.

It uses USAP interface, meaning it will take power from the source using a USB Type-C cable. Orico has provided a USB-20 IF-rated cable having 0.13M length. Blue LED indicator provides visual clues about the operation status on the drive. The cable is in ribbon style, making it a comfortable fit between the mobile device and the drive.

The drive supports 4K ProRes recording. Due to limitations on Android, this drive can act as added storage for backup on Android without direct writing support. However, you can use third-party software to write videos directly to the drive.

This drive in 512GB capacity, has an MSRP of USD 99.99, which is sort of a steep price, but the given speed rating and compatibility along with form factor easily overcome this factor. This drive is a Must Have for mobile content creators who are mobile.

Pros:

• 20Gbps Transfer Rate
• USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C
• Compact Form Factor
• 7.5mm thickness
• N52 magnets with 18N magnetic force
• No tweaking needed on latest Mobile Devices
• Ideal for Apple Users
• Excellent Performance

Cons:

• No USB Type-A Cable for more compatibility
• Uses Host’s power
• Price