Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
We love that the novel Envoy Ultra Thunderbolt 5 SSD from OWC is almost as tight as Apple ’s intragroup storage , but it ’s not cheap and backwards compatibility is n’t all - encompassing .
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This is the compatibility statement from the Thunderbolt 5 PR deck. “Broadly” apparently doesn’t mean “Completely”. Especially with older software and hardware.
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Best Prices Today: OWC Envoy Ultra Thunderbolt 5 SSD
If you ’re looking to take full vantage of the Thunderbolt 5 ports on your M4 Pro Mac mini or M4 Pro / Max MacBook Pro and mayhap circumvent Apple ’s avaricious warehousing upgrade pricing , you should consider OWC ’s Envoy Ultra Thunderbolt 5 external SSD . The Envoy Ultra is hardly cheap , but it ’s nowhere near what Apple charge .
On the downside , there are more backwards compatibility issues than have a bun in the oven .
Thunderbolt 5 compatibility
While the stop number is alluring , and Thunderbolt 5 itselfisbackwards compatible with elder Thunderbolt glasses , it ’s not nearly as backwards compatible as you might think , we wish , or is hint at .
First , you need a Thunderbolt 5 - enable Mac or Windows PC to take full reward of Thunderbolt 5 ’s 80Gbps transportation pace . 80Gbps ? Yes . While you may have learn 120GBps quoted in some article as Thunderbolt 5 ’s top speed , that ’s only unidirectional for displays . Bi - directing , as with store , is limited to 80Gbps .
The first compatibility issue is that to utilize a Thunderbolt 5 private road , Apple Si Macs need either macOS 14 Sonoma , or macOS 15 Sequoia . Thunderbolt 3 Macs with Intel chips must run Sequoia . Note that the Envoy Ultra did enumerate on my Mac Studio Thunderbolt 4 bus when I was back on Ventura , but it was n’t usable in Disk Utility or Finder .
This is the compatibility statement from the Thunderbolt 5 PR deck. “Broadly” apparently doesn’t mean “Completely”. Especially with older software and hardware.
Also , while the Envoy Ultra ’s intent cable forestall me from testing it on older Thunderbolt 1/2 using an adaptor , the double above indicates that this is off the table . OWC confirm that Thunderbolt 5 wo n’t work with the older measure , so stick with Thunderbolt 3 equipment for older mack .
OWC ’s Envoy Ultra Thunderbolt 5
Jon L. Jacobi
OWC’s Envoy Ultra Thunderbolt 5SSD.
to boot , in my testing for PCWorld , there was a rather large issue with the official trial run bottom . That take is that the Envoy Ultra completely failed to record in the BIOS , Disk Manager , or Thunderbolt utility . Oops . This is despite update all the drivers , take out everything non - essential , and even updating Windows 11 to the a la mode discharge on the trial bottom . Eventually , a BIOS / Thunderbolt microcode update from Asus solve the issue .
This iffy backwards compatibility could be a trouble if you ’re working in a mixed operating arrangement environment . Some older equipment might not be updated .
Features
The OWC Envoy Ultra divvy up the handsome , sculptured styling of the Thunderbolt 3 40Gbps / USB 3.2 10GbpsEnvoy Pro FX . However , it ’s a bit expectant chunk of black metallic element , measuring about 0.75 in thick , 2.8 in wide , and 5 inches long . The Envoy Ultra weighs in at a satisfyingly substantial 10.5 snow leopard or so .
I already mention the captive cable , which is for weatherproofing ( it ’s not IP - order , but it seems as if it could pass the run ) and making certain you ca n’t lose it . It does , however , make it a bit knockout to stow the Envoy Ultra in tight tail . Also , as with all captive cables , you should avoid punctuate the attachment point for longevity ’s sake .
The OWC Envoy Ultra carry a three - year warranty , but no TBW ( Terabytes that may be save ) rating was given .
The OWC Envoy Ultra attached to the MacBook Pro M4 Pro used for testing.
Price
If you thought a Thunderbolt 5 SSD was go to be cheap….well , I have some interesting real estate attribute you might be concerned in . The Envoy Ultra cost a coolheaded $ 400 in its 2 TB form and $ 600 at 4 TB .
render that you may catch a Thunderbolt 3 / USB4 SSD for roughly half that , and a 20/10Gbps unit for far less than half , you ’d comfortably really ask or desire the speed . Note however , that despite a new 20Gbps 3.2×2 tunneling protocol that may work with docking stations , 3.2×2 SSDs still drop to 10Gbps when attached flat to a Thunderbolt 5 port . 20Gbps USB4 SSDs will operate at full speeding confiscate to Thunderbolt 5 .
Then again , compared with Apple ’s glaring Leontyne Price gouging for internal storage upgrades ( $ 1,200 for 4 TB ? ? ? ) , the Envoy Ultra is a fantastic steal .
Blackmagicdesign’s Disk Speed test showed consistent 5.2GBps performance in both reading and writing for the OWC Envoy Ultra (left). The Internal M4 Pro MacBook Pro SSD results are shown on the right.
Performance
Short answer : Very tight . Benchmarks show up anywhere from 5.2GBps ( Blackmagicdesign ’s Disk Speed Test ) , to 6.5GBps reading ( AmorphousDiskMark ) , to near 7GBps reading and 5.57GBps piece of writing ( ATTO ) . Even my real - humanity read of approximately 330 GB of .mov files show an first-class play of form – almost 6GBps reading . Alas , authorship was substantially slower , only around 1.5GBps .
mark I copied to and from the same M4 Pro MacBook Pro ( 2 TB ) that I execute the synthetic benchmark on . By way of comparison , and for the Age of Reason of those who might be looking to avoid paying derisory sums for Apple ’s internal storage , I included the benchmark results from the MacBook ’s inner SSD . These are shown to the right field of the OWC Envoy Ultra ’s in the persona below .
The difference between the internal and external storage is n’t as severe as you might expect . Long story short , register outcome are remarkably near for the most part , though the internal SSD was a good deal faster writing under nearly all circumstances .
AmorphousDiskMark showed the Envoy Ultra reading far faster than Disk Speed test. Nearly 6.5GBps.
Note that the fastest external SSD we ’ve previously test , theUSB4 Adata SE920only just exceeded 3GBps reading . Yes … Very fast .
AmorphousDiskMark showed better numbers for the Envoy Ultra reading – a rather scintillating 6.44GBps . Not that far off the MacBook Pro M4 Pro ’s internal SSD . Approximately 5GBps writing from the Envoy Ultra seems to be the consensus from all three man-made benchmarks .
ATTO Disk Benchmark paints mostly the same picture , though read fastness for the Envoy Ultra actually exceeded those of the MacBook Pro M4 Pro ’s internal SSD . Writes ? No , though around 5GBps is hardly anything to sneeze at .
ATTO Disk Benchmark paints largely the same picture, though read speeds for the Envoy Ultra actually exceeded those of the MacBook Pro M4 Pro’s internal SSD. Writes? No, though around 5GBps is hardly anything to sneeze at.
Although our real - world file pen did n’t match the benchmarks , they were still quite good . In totality , the OWC Envoy Ultra is a very prissy acclivity performance - wise from the average Thunderbolt 3 SSD , and a worthy companion for any Thunderbolt 5 Mac .
Note that the SSD inside the Envoy Ultra is the Auro Pro IV . you may understand more about its performance ( good at the time , not so much now ) in sister publicationPCWorld ’s review . That said , the Envoy Ultra , once running on our updated trial run bottom , turn in a very , very ho-hum 450 GB write meter .
Should you buy the OWC Envoy Ultra?
If you want , and can enter the absolute firm storage for your new Thunderbolt 5 Mac , then the answer is yes . Have at it . Also , it ’s a heck of a lot cheaper than Apple ’s rapaciously price internal storage and nearly as tight . That said , Thunderbolt 3 / USB4 SSDs are still plenty debauched , cheaper , and far more compatible with older Mac hardware and software program . I ’ll lead the economic value equation up to you .
