Package

The Drive

The Netac ZX20 is very compact for a portable SSD, especially when you consider the performance offered.


The case looks great, it is made of plastic. A single USB-C port lets you connect to the drive. An activity indicator is not available.

Disassembly

When taking the drive apart, it becomes clear how space-optimized the whole design is. Netac uses a custom-design PCB—other vendors use a full-size M.2 drive that plugs into some kind of adapter PCB, making their designs significantly larger.


On the PCB we find the SSD controller, the USB interface, and two NAND flash chips.


The flash chips are Micron 176-layer 3D TLC NAND.


The Silicon Motion SM2320G is a brand-new design that combines the USB interface and SSD controller logic into a single processor. It uses four channels to connect to the flash chips, and has support for QLC and TLC NAND.