Transcend256GB JDL350 JetDrive Lite 350 Expansion Card for MacBook Pro (Retina) 15" (Mid 2012 - Early 2013) up to 95/55 MB/s TS256GJDL350

1. No installation instructions in, or on the box, but it's just inserted carefully like any SD card.2. I was expecting the visible edge to be silver to match the MacBook, but it is black. I must have confused it with other products.3. It comes formatted as FAT but needs to be re-formatted in the Disk Utility (Erase) to the Mac journaled option, otherwise it will be slower and Time Machine will not process it.I knock off a star for these minor points. Otherwise it performs very well. Getting about 55 MB/s write and 80 MB/s read speeds. Which is about 5 to 6 times slower then the MacBook SSD.This is not a SD card inside, it is specifically designed for its purpose and, for the price, it does it very well. Don't be tempted by the MicroSD cards and adapters that are available. I reckoned I would only get up to 1MB/s Write speeds on a good quality Class 10 Ultra SDXC, which is still hundreds of times slower then the SSD.I decided on the 128GB (larger version will be cheaper by the time it gets full) then moved all the data files to the JetDrive. I program for living, so there are lots of files, graphics and libraries. The JetDrive has not slowed me down much at all because once a file is loaded (usually it's text), the incremental saves are very small. All the heavy lifting is done by the development systems and simulators. They and their support resources are on the SSD.It survives the MacBook going to sleep and waking up just fine. You can change the desktop icon as with any drive, so it looks less like a SD card and more like another disk volume. Psychologically, this makes it much more aethestically acceptable to my eyes.All in all, it's a no-brainer upgrade.

I have had two of these (a 128GB and a 256GB one) JetDrive lite cards in two different Retina MacBook pros.The have been now effectively halved in price. This is probably due to the fact that the underlying tech inside is now considerably slower than microSD card readers that you can install roughly the same way with a flush reader.I still recommend this because it is durable, sturdy, looks good, protrudes minimally and it is still reasonably easy to remove (if you have fingernails) and at this price point it makes sense... unless you need to access the data frequently where the address speed of a Nifty drive plus a fast microSD could make a difference... theoretically... as still we are well below SSD speeds and a fast external solid state drive would be faster and larger still. Also if you plan on using your SD card slot frequently... just forget it... as it would become a royal pain to take the Jetdrive Lite out all the time. For that infrequent use of the card slot I use an external reader.I recommend the 256GB version at a price of below 80 pounds, otherwise you are better waiting for a faster model or get a flush microSD drive and a fast card, which is slightly more expensive, but potentially larger and faster.

This is not my first of these - I previously owned the 128Gb model, but after realising that it was just too small, I upgraded to the 256Gb model, which is (obviously) twice the size.Speed on my 2015 13" macbook pro is very good considering it's essentially a cut down sd card. Blackmagic speed test rates it around 35MB/s write and an impressive 90MB/s read (see screenshot). Clearly not in SSD territory, but good enough to work well as a storage drive. I store most of my Steam library on it and games load quickly and take up no space on my internal drive.I used the software that comes with it initially to unmount the drive when sleeping and re-mount when waking, but I was having issues with battery drain, so I switched to using Jettison, which seems to drain the battery less. I do still experience a certain amount of battery drain (quite variable), but it's possible this is not due to the drive.A much much cheaper option that a) upgrading the SSD or b) buying a new macbook! Also much handier than an external ssd (been there too) - mine had a habit of getting knocked and dismounting.Only slight annoyance is that obviously you lose the sd card slot - easily remedied by buying an external USB3 card reader for a few pounds.

This device is excellent if you are running out of storage on your as it provides a convenient solution for expanding storage space on your mac. Before you purchase this you need to determine whats taking up most of the space. If it's just files then this device is perfect for you as it provides an alternative always accessible location to store any large files. However if your space is being used up by apps or virtual machines I do not recommend moving them onto here as the drive is just too slow (I ended up returning the one I had as I needed more space for virtual machine files). If you fall into the latter group and you are comfortable opening up your macbook, you can purchase a replacement drive from a variety of sites(they will have been taken from older macs) for a slightly higher cost. I picked a 256gb SSD for the macbook pro retina 2015 for £165.

I like the fact that the Transcend fits flush into my MacBook Pro expanding storage by an extra 256GB instantly.I can leave it in permanently and it shows up as a separate hard drive with an icon on the desktop.I’ve moved 76GB of photos ( releasing lots of space) onto the Transcend and deleted them from my MBP giving me plenty of space for other files/ apps etc.Having original internal storage of just 128GB which was filling up fast this has been a great purchase to extend the life of my MBP as I now have 90GB free hard drive rather than 25GB approx .....well pleased! 👍