Review: Orico K20 Mini SSD for video recording on phones

Review unit provided by Orico

The Orico K20 Mini is a compact SSD external storage designed to be attached to the back of phones for video recording. The selling point here is so that you get extra storage for recording those high-resolution uncompressed videos, eg Apple ProRes videos.

Prices, at the time of review are:

• 512GB: USD 99
• 1TB: USD 139
• 2TB: 239

The transfer speed is marketed as up to 2050 MB/s. That transfer speed suggests to me that the USB protocol is USB 3.2 gen 2x2 which Orico did not mention on their product page. It is important to know that you can only get that advertised transfer speed with USB 3.2 gen 2x2 and not USB 4, or Thunderbolt 4 or 5. And not many computers actually come with USB 3.2 gen 2x2 ports.

What's included

• SSD
• Magsafe magnet for attaching to phones
• USB-C to USB-C data cable
• User manual

If you use an iPhone with lightning port, Orico has this lightning to USB-C adapter that also supports the charging of the phone while recording.

Design>/h3>

Design of the SSD is small. The Orico K20 Mini is a MagSafe accessory so it will attach to the back of iPhones with MagSafe.

The weight is not listed on the product page but it's lightweight and surprisingly barely adds any weight to the phone.

There will be extra thickness though so most phone clamps will not be able to clamp both the phone and SSD.

If you use an Android phone, you can stick the included magnetic ring behind your phone or phone case to make them MagSafe compatible.

Cable looks thick and durable.

Speed test

Shown above is the speed test using a laptop with USB 3.2 gen 2 port. Read and write speed is around 1GB/s, which is half of the advertised transfer speed.

Transfer speed above is from the M1 Mac Mini with Thunderbolt 4 port. I also tested with M2 Pro Macbook Pro and read speed is faster at 925MB/s

If you want to reach 2GB/s transfer speed, you need USB 3.2 gen 2x2, and not many computers have that port. You will not get faster transfer speeds even when connected to a USB 4, Thunderbolt 4 or 5 port.

Having said that, the transfer speed is still fast enough for 4K video editing. More specifically the speed is fast enough to edit 8K 60FPS.

Conclusion

The Orico K20 Mini is a more cost effective way to record Apple ProRes videos compared to buying iPhone internal storage which is seriously overpriced.

With the 2TB model, I could record 1hr 13min of Apple ProRes HDR at 4K 120FPS, or 6hr at 4K 24FPS.

One nice thing about this SSD is you can edit videos directly off it. Transferring files to a computer is also easier than transferring from an iPhone, which can be excruciating if you use AirDrop to transfer.

The Orico K20 Mini is a product that works as advertised. Unfortunately I wasn't able to test the USB 3.2 gen 2x2 transfer speed though because I have several computers and they all do not support that USB protocol.

Availability

The Orico K20 Mini can be purchased from Orico online store or Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | ES | IT | JP)