Nowadays, there are more and more portable solid-state drives coming out on the market. And Kingston is one of the major players in this niche. Recently, they launched a fast model called the XS2000, an external SSD that promises speeds of up to 2000MBps, small size and lightweight, and also IP55 certification against water and dust. Does it manage to offer everything it promises? Read our review and find out how the Kingston XS2000 fared in our real-life tests and benchmarks so that you can decide for yourself whether you should get one:

Kingston XS2000: Who is it good for?

The Kingston XS2000 solid-state drive is an excellent choice for:

• People who need fast storage on the go
• Those who are searching for a portable SSD that’s water and dust resistant
• Users who have computers or laptops with fast USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 ports

Pros and cons

There are quite a few good things we can say about the Kingston XS2000 external SSD:

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• Fast, both at reading and writing data
• Lightweight and small
• IP55 certification (water and dust resistant)
• Five-year warranty
• Good price compared to similar alternatives

The only downside worth mentioning about the Kingston XS2000 SSD is that it doesn’t offer hardware encryption.

Verdict

Being able to reach up to 2 GB/s transfer speeds, the Kingston XS2000 is a very fast portable solid-state drive. It’s small and lightweight, and the price Kingston asks for it is competitive. In our opinion, this is a good choice for anyone who is searching for an excellent external drive that will cover their needs for at least a few years. We believe that it’s especially good for professionals, such as videographers and video editors, who work with large files and need fast storage on the go.

Unboxing the Kingston XS2000 external SSD

The Kingston XS2000 is a small portable solid-state drive, but its box is rather large. On the package, you get to see what the device looks like, some essential details about it, like its name, storage space and speeds, and also other information such as its 5-year warranty.

The package of the Kingston XS2000 SSD

Unboxing the Kingston XS2000 SSD reveals the device, a short USB-C cable, and a black rubber sleeve that you can mount on the solid-state drive to protect it.

Unboxing the Kingston XS2000 SSD

While the unboxing experience of the Kingston XS2000 external SSD is fast and straightforward, the box contains everything you need to start using it quickly.

Design and hardware specifications

The Kingston XS2000 is a high-end external solid-state drive that’s designed to withstand water and dust (IP55 certification with the rubber sleeve mounted) and built to offer high read and write speeds. It connects to your computer or laptop using a fast USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C port and, with the help of its Silicon Motion SM2320 NAND controller, it can theoretically reach speeds of up to 2,000 MBps when reading or writing data sequentially.

The Kingston XS2000 with its rubber sleeve mounted

The XS2000 is sold by Kingston in three capacity variants: 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB. The sample we tested was the middle-ground one: 1TB. It’s worth noting that all models are advertised as offering the same sequential read/write speeds, and all of them use the same type of flash memory: Micron 96L TLC.

Information about the Kingston XS2000 SSD

The case of the Kingston XS2000 portable solid-state drive is made of mixed materials, both plastic and metal. Although it doesn’t heat much on the surface, when we ran the benchmarks from the next sections of this review, we found that, internally, the SSD can reach temperatures of up to 69 degrees Celsius (156 degrees Fahrenheit).

The Kingston XS2000 without its rubber sleeve

Kingston’s XS2000 external solid-state drive is a small device that, without its cable, can fit in any pocket. If you’re curious about its exact physical dimensions, know that they are 69.54 × 32.58 × 13.5mm (roughly 2.74 × 1.28 × 0.53 in). It’s also lightweight at an insignificant 28.9 grams (1.02 oz).

If you want to know more about the specs and features of this solid-state drive, visit Kingston XS2000 external SSD - Specifications.

Advertised to reach read and write speeds of up to 2GB/s, Kingston’s XS2000 shapes up to be one of the fastest external solid-state drives on the market. Let’s see now how it fares in real life and in benchmarks.

Using the Kingston XS2000 external SSD

We used and tested the Kingston XS2000 SSD on a desktop computer with the following configuration:

• Motherboard: ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Hero (Wi-Fi)
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
• Memory: HyperX Predator DDR4 RGB Memory (2 x 8GB, 3200MHz)
• Graphics Card: AMD Radeon RX 5700
• Solid-state drive: KC3000 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD
• Power Supply Unit: ASUS ROG Thor 850W Platinum
• Operating System: Windows 11 Pro (Version 21H2, OS Build 22000.376)

For starters, we checked what you really get in terms of storage space. As you can see in the following screenshot, Windows 11 reports that the Kingston XS2000 1TB SSD has 953GB of storage capacity. By default, the SSD is formatted using the exFAT file system.

The Kingston XS2000 SSD in Windows 11

What about real speeds in Windows 11 when copying large files on and from the Kingston XS2000? The KC3000 SSD in our test computer is a PCIe 4.0 drive that is faster than the external XS2000 we tested, so no bottlenecks there. 🙂 When we copied a 5 GB Windows 11 ISO file onto the XS2000, we saw speeds that slightly exceeded 1 GB/s.

Copying a large file on the Kingston XS2000 SSD

Copying the same file from the Kingston XS2000 to the internal solid-state drive was faster, reaching almost 1.5 GB per second.

Copying a large file from the Kingston XS2000 to the internal SSD

It looks like the Kingston XS2000 external SSD is very fast in real-life situations. What about benchmarks? Read the next section of this review to find out.

Performance in benchmarks

We began the benchmarks with CrystalDiskMark, which is an excellent tool for testing both the sequential and random read/write speeds of solid-state drives. Using the Kingston XS2000, this app measured a sequential read speed of over 2000 MB/s, a sequential write speed of 1857 MB/s, and random read/write values of 42576/57314 IOPS. These are all excellent results, close to what Kingston promises!

Kingston XS2000 SSD: CrystalDiskMark benchmark results

The second benchmark we ran was PCMark 10’s System Drive Benchmark, where the XS2000 SSD managed a score of 1116 points. It’s an impressive result that confirms that the XS2000 is one very fast portable SSD.

Kingston XS2000 benchmark result in PCMark 10

The third and last benchmark we ran was BlackMagic’s Disk Speed Test. It’s part of a larger software suite for capturing and playing video files, and it’s a relevant test, especially for videographers and video editors who need fast storage solutions. This benchmark evaluated the Kingston XS2000 SSD as being able to sustain sequential read and write speeds of 1891 MB/s and 1722 MB/s. That’s fast and close to what the manufacturer advertises the XS2000 SSD as being able to deliver.

Kingston XS2000 SSD: Blackmagic Disk Speed Test benchmark results

The benchmarks we ran prove that the Kingston XS2000 external solid-state drive is a very fast device that can deliver high read and write speeds.

Do you intend to buy a Kingston XS2000 external SSD?

After using and testing it for a while, we know now that the Kingston XS2000 is an excellent choice. Considering that its price is also well balanced, do you intend to get yourself one? Let us know what you think about it in the comments section below.