ORICO iv300 iMatch 500GB Mini Portable SSD Review

By Nathan Kirsch August 28, 2020

ORICO iv300 – Cute Drive With Wicked 1GB/s Speeds

ORICO recently introduced the iv300 Match Mini External SSD series in June 2020 that features speeds of up to 940 MB/s thanks to using an NVMe-based drive inside. The all-metal, USB 3.1 Type-C 10Gbps drive allows consumers to capture more photos and videos, and easily transfer content between desktop computers, game consoles, laptops, tablet and smartphones. The aluminum body also features a slot for a lanyard or keychain ring, ensuring you can easily take your extra storage for content with you. Content creators are generating more raw footage than ever and a portable SSD allows you to access, share and manage it all across a wide range of devices. The ORICO iv300 is marketed as being an external drive that allows you to smoothly edit video and store all your video, images and files.

The ORICO iv300 iMatch Series is available in 250GB, 500GB and 1TB capacities with pricing being $89.99, $129.99 and $192.99, respectively. You also get to pick between having a black, silver, blue or red drive. All ORICO IV300 iMatch portable SSDs are backed by a 3-year warranty. This model features a JMicron JMS583 A2 revision bridge chip inside, which means it will be more stable on AMD Ryzen platforms. The ORICO GV100 portable SSD (full review) that we reviewed earlier in the year used the older JMicron JMS583 A0 bridge chip and was not stable when we tested it on an AMD X570 platform.

Our review sample that ORICO sent over was the blue model that is sold under part number ORICO IV300-500G-BL-BP. Inside the box you’ll find a USB Type-C to Type-C cable, USB Type-C to USB Type-A cable, user manual, service card and of course the drive itself.

The ORICO iv300 measures 68.8 mm x 32 mm x 10.4 mm and our 500GB model weighed in at 35 Grams without the cable. The drive is comfortable to hold in your hand and the tapered ends of the drive allow it to slide into your pocket or bag with ease. The blue color is also very nice as it sparkles a bit!

The USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type C drive has the connector located on the end of the drive with a blue LED activity/power light off to the side of the connector.

On the back of the aluminum enclosure you have the capacity, model number, place of manufacturer and the usual regulatory markings. There isn’t an easy way to get this drive open as we tried to pry the back cover open with a screw driver and ended up bending the lanyard hole as you can see from the image above. The cover barely moves and is likely glued down with some sort of adhesive to keep it from falling off. We only have one sample and didn’t want to risk breaking it. Inside you’ll find the JMicron JMS583 A2 revision USB bridge chip and an SSD that uses 3D TLC NAND Flash memory.

Let’s move along and see how this drive actually performs!