SK hynix Canvas SL301 500GB SSD Review

The SK hynix solid state drive arrives in a stylish little box – with canvas style artwork all around it. It is very cool.

Remove the stickers on the box and you are tied into the SK hynix warranty policy.

The 2.5 inch drive is encased inside an anti static bag and it is placed on a cardboard riser.

Much of the space of the box is unused – no fancy extras included – just a ‘user instruction' guide. As you would expect there is not much in this but for very inexperienced users it might prove useful.

SK hynix have not changed their enclosure – which is good as I think it is fantastic looking. It is a completely tool less design too and while we wouldn't advise it, you can open the drive by pulling on the sides if you can get your fingernail between the top and bottom pieces. If you are using a screwdriver, some care is required.

While I said the enclosure hadn't changed, this is not completely true. The other drives we have reviewed in the SC300 range have had a red plastic strip running around the edges of the chassis. The SL301 is different as SK hynix have opted for more subdued red plastic corners. Opening the drive we can see this plastic frame in its full glory. We do find the small touches on the design rather appealing.

The SK hynic SL301 differs from the earlier SC300 drives – in that it is a smaller PCB inside the chassis – half length. The NAND flash is on both sides this time, rather than one. To most customers this information is irrelevant, they will never open the chassis in the first place to notice the tiny PCB. On the PCB is the SK hynix controller supported with a DDR2 cache chip and eight 16nm NAND chips.

We formatted the SK hynix SL301 500GB in Windows 10, and it left 465GB free for use.

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