Apacer ASMini 240GB Portable Mini SSD Review

Packaging and A Closer Look

Packaging and Accessories

Apacer’s SSD package design is quite simple, but it looks good. The included drive is partially visible through the box and the rest of the drive is outlined in the print. Name, capacity, and connection options are all available on the front.

The rear side of the box has more details in various languages, mainly the purpose of the drive and its benefit in comparison with an HDD version.

Accessories

There aren’t a whole lot of accessories included within the box, in fact, there’s only a USB cable next to the drive itself.

Inside Out

Once we open the drive up, we see that it only contains a small bridge PCB with a 2260 M.2 drive attached. There is plenty of extra space and a different PCB design could have halved the physical size. However, there might be a reason for this. The casing is made of plastic and the extra space gives the components some extra breathing room.

The design of the drive does allow for the option to install an M.2 module with a higher capacity down the line. However, opening the enclosure safely isn’t as easy as you might expect from looking at it. You’ll get it open in one piece, but you’ll have to be very careful not to break it in the area around the USB plug. And of course, keep in mind that you’ll void your warranty by opening the drive.

The bridge board inside Apacer’s ASMini is quite simple. Everything is controlled by the onboard JMicron JMS576 USB 3.1 Gen.1 to SATA 6Gbps controller. It is a simple all-in-one solution with support for UASP.

The M.2 drive has an Apacer SCPS08 controller and four 16nm MLC NAND packages. There’s also a Nanya RAM chip for caching purposes.

The tiny drive is packed well on both sides.