Let’s take a look at this SSD here. It’s within SanDisk’s new Creator series and all of them are in this same blue hue. They’re made for creators, of course – but what’s the difference compared to other SanDisk products? Well, I’ll just point it out first. All products within the Creator series are partnered with Adobe to offer either one month of Creative Cloud for free, or three months of Lightroom for free.
Unboxing
First off, let’s talk about the unboxing. The box itself is pretty simple. We have all the crucial details laid out – for this SanDisk Creator Phone SSD though, it is listed to be MagSafe compatible, 1TB in capacity with these read and write speeds, and also free one month of Adobe Creative Cloud.
At this side of the box, we can see that this SSD is listed to use the USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 protocol. We’ll talk more about this later.
Opening up the box reveals the SSD itself, then a bunch of documentation, and also the code for the Adobe Creative Cloud. It’s a QR code behind that we have to scan to redeem. Pretty straightforward.
If the phone or phone case we’re using is not MagSafe compatible, then SanDisk also included a metal ring in the box too. We can just stick it with the double-sided tape and all of a sudden, it’s MagSafe compatible.
And we also have a short flat cable. This cable is actually a Thunderbolt 4 cable that can go up to 40Gb/s and also 100W for charging. I was surprised by it as I didn’t expect this cable to be a full-fledged Thunderbolt 4 cable. It might be a bit too stiff, though.
The SSD itself
Now, this SanDisk Phone Creator SSD is made out of a plastic front and back, and a majority of it is wrapped in a soft silicone material. This will not scratch your phone or phone case if we rub it around and also mitigate damage if it is dropped. There is a lanyard loop there so make use of it if you’re afraid that it will drop.
Since it is MagSafe compatible, it is obviously compatible with all iPhones. The SSD just snaps in place and it is away from the camera bump. Then, we can connect the short cable from the SSD to the phone, and then change this setting in the camera settings and start recording 4K ProRes videos directly to the SSD.
Best of all, copying the footages out to our Mac or PC for editing is also a lot faster than any other methods.
It’s just that because the cable is so stiff, the MagSafe magnets aren’t strong enough to hold it in place and the SSD could pop out. Doesn’t matter if we’re connecting it caseless or with a case. Maybe some third-party cases will have an even stronger magnet and this could be prevented.
Now, how about other phones then? Well, there are other phones out there with cases that has MagSafe compatibility. Case in point, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra with this case from Benks. Yes, the SSD can snap in place and you might have realized that the SSD is offset to the side – and you’re right. Benks made it this way so the MagSafe accessories doesn’t just clash with the camera bump.
In the software side of things, Samsung also has the ability to record videos directly to the SSD too. We can download Camera Assistant and then enable this option. Simple.
Benchmarks
We first connected the SSD to our desktop to run some tests. Using a standard USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, it can reach the advertised speed. Other benchmarks also show really good results.
As for AIDA 64’s linear write test, the speed goes up and down and I think that it could be some sort of write caching feature that is causing this. Either way, this is a synthetic test and it probably will never happen in real world usage.
Now, remember that on the box, it says that this SSD is using the USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 protocol? Well, there are a few problems with this protocol. First, it is like a forgotten protocol as it is not supported by Thunderbolt 4, and our phones do not support it either. Only a few desktop motherboards support it.
Still, it practically doesn’t matter since in reality, we don’t utilize the duplex connection that USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 offers and the maximum read/write speeds of this SSD doesn’t saturate the connection either.
And when we connected the SSD to our other motherboard with a USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 port and run the tests again, yeah it doesn’t matter in terms of simplex mode file transfers.
Should you buy the SanDisk Creator Phone SSD?
So, should you buy the SanDisk Creator Phone SSD? Well, if you always film on your phone, then yes. It’s a must-have product. And if you use Adobe products, then the free one-month of Creative Cloud is the cherry on top.
At the price of RM699, I think it’s worth the price as it snaps to the back of your phone, saves all the 4K ProRes videos that you’ve shot, and we can quickly transfer it out to our PC or Mac for editing quickly. And of course, we can still treat it like any external, portable SSD and just transfer files into it.
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