UGREEN 2.5-inch SATA enclosure, USB C 3.2 Gen 2, UASP, TRIM and S.M.A.R.T., ABS with EVA foam, 50 cm lead

On the listing

A 2.5-inch SATA drive enclosure with a USB C 3.2 Gen 2 port stated at up to 6 Gbps, supporting the UASP protocol for up to 70 % more speed than ordinary USB 3.0 when paired with a UASP-capable host controller; TRIM and S.M.A.R.T. support for solid-state drives and an intelligent sleep mode for all SATA drives, cutting power to the drive after three minutes of inactivity; a stable ABS housing with good heat dissipation and shock resistance, an internal EVA foam pad holding the drive and protecting it from scratches, and a built-in protection system against overcurrent, overvoltage and overheating; a tool-free construction with a detachable 50 cm USB-C cable; and support for 2.5-inch SATA drives of 9.5 mm and 7 mm up to 6 TB, on hosts from a television or router to a PS5, an Xbox, a MacBook or a PC.

Three minutes

Four listings in this lot mention an automatic sleep mode. One of them says when it happens.

The second bullet: after three minutes of inactivity the enclosure goes into standby and cuts power to the drive.

That is a specification rather than a feature name, and it lets a buyer picture the behaviour. Three minutes is short enough that a drive left connected all day spends most of it stopped, and long enough that it does not sleep between two file copies. On a spinning mechanism it is the difference between a disc that turns for eight hours and one that turns when it is used.

The cost is the pause when it wakes, which on a hard disc is a few seconds of spin-up and on a solid-state drive is nothing at all.

Fifty centimetres, and it comes off

The fourth bullet names the cable length and says the cable detaches.

Both halves matter more than they sound. Fifty centimetres is a desk length rather than a room length — enough to reach a socket on the side of a laptop, not enough to lie across a floor. And a detachable lead is a lead that can be replaced when it frays, upgraded, or left behind when the enclosure goes in a bag.

Two enclosures on this shelf name their cable at all. This is the only one that measures it.

UASP, with the condition attached

The first bullet claims up to 70 % more speed than ordinary USB 3.0 — and then adds when paired with a UASP-capable host controller.

That clause is the honest part. UASP is a protocol spoken at both ends of the link: it changes how commands are queued, and a computer that does not support it simply falls back to the older behaviour, at which point the percentage does not appear at all.

Most listings in this hub state the gain and omit the condition. Fourteen of the nineteen name UASP; this one names what it depends on.

Foam, plastic, and no metal

The third bullet describes ABS with an EVA foam insert, credited with heat dissipation, shock resistance and holding the drive without scratching it during installation.

The foam is a genuinely thoughtful detail — a 2.5-inch drive rattling in a plastic shell is the commonest complaint about enclosures at this price, and a pad both silences it and stops the label being scraped off.

The material is the trade-off. ABS is not aluminium, and on a shelf where two enclosures name a metal case this one names a plastic one and claims good heat dissipation for it. For a hard disc that is entirely adequate. For a fast solid-state drive under a long copy, metal moves heat and plastic holds it.

Six gigabits, on a ten-gigabit port

The first bullet gives up to 6 Gbps against a USB C 3.2 Gen 2 port.

Those are two different links written as one, and the same phrasing appears on the M.2 shelf of this site. Six gigabits is what SATA III does; USB 3.2 Gen 2 is the class of the socket. A SATA drive is bounded by SATA whatever the port could manage, which is why every enclosure on this shelf quotes a number in that region regardless of its USB class.

Before ordering

Check the drive height against 7 mm or 9.5 mm. Decide whether 50 cm of cable reaches where the enclosure will sit, since the lead is short and detachable rather than long. And if the drive is a fast solid-state one under sustained load, the aluminium enclosure further along this shelf is the one that addresses heat with a material rather than a claim.

Availability

Priced from 9 € to 14 € across the German, French, Italian and Spanish Amazon stores the day this page was checked.

It is stocked on the American and British Amazon stores as well, in that country’s own currency. The range above leaves those out: it counts euro stores and no others.

Every figure in this section is what Keepa held on the day this page was last updated. Stock and prices move without warning.