AUGUST 2021 MACWORLD 35well over 2GBps—nice, and on par with
the Samsung X5 (fave.co/2TdJgLx).
Thanks to the fan and the other
thermal measures, the new Fledging Shell
Thunderbolt runs almost cool to the
touch—Fledging claims at 30 degrees
Celsius (85 degrees Fahrenheit), which
was only a little over the ambient
temperature in the testbed. As noted, the
older, smaller non-fan was uncomfortable
to the touch after heavy use.
Comparatively, OWC’s $80 Envoy
Express (fave.co/3juCOum) is slothful,
writing at around 1250MBps and reading
at 1350MBps. That’s not bad, but not close
to the Shell. The Express might still be the
better product if you’re leveraging an
older, slower NVMe SSD (for instance, x2
PCIe) that can’t take advantage of the
Shell’s greater bandwidth. Under any other
scenario, the Shell’s the one to go with.
BOTTOM LINE
The Fledging Shell Thunderbolt
costs a cool (pun intended)
$145 without an NVMe SSD.
With midrange 500GB NVMe
SSDs starting around $70 and
Samsung’s 500GB X5 $199 on
Amazon, the Shell doesn’t
make sense at lower
capacities. However, once you
hit 1TB, you start saving money.
A decent 1TB NVMe SSD costs
mmmm
Fledging Shell
Thunderbolt SSD
PROS- Fast with higher-capacity
SSDs. - Venting system to keep the
drive cool.
CONS - Pricey at lower capacities.
PRICE
$137
COMPANY
Fledging
around $120 (so the cost with the Shell is
$265), and a 2TB around $180 (total
$325). The X5 costs $400 at 1TB and
$600 at 2TB. At those capacities, the
Shell Thunderbolt is easily the
better bargain.
Note that Fledging sells
the Shell Thunderbolt
populated as well: $190 for
256GB, $250 for 512GB,
$300 for 1TB, and $400 for
2TB. Ask about the drive
included. The WD SN750 (fave.
co/3AhtUWL) our test unit
included is fast enough, but
opt for 512GB or higher if you
want top write speeds. ■Fledging’s Shell Thunderbolt allows NVMe
SSDs to perform at near-peak performance.