A High-Intensity Portable USB4 SSD
The rugged, professional-grade drive built for the most intense workflows. With the latest USB4 connectivity, speeds up to 4,000 MB/s, increased thermal capacity, and real time integrated health monitoring, Atom EX40 delivers the highest levels of sustained performance and reliability, keeping pace with your high-res video, photo and audio editing needs.
Next-Gen USB4 Speed
Atom EX40 has blistering performance with up to 4,000 MB/s read and write speeds. Great for 8K/12K, RAW photo & video, VR and Multicam workflows.
Increased Thermal Ceiling
Solid aluminum core and outer shell allow EX40 to remove significantly more heat from the internal components. Allowing for higher sustained speeds and increased reliability.
Backward Compatible
Featuring the latest 40Gb USB4 Type-C Port, Atom EX40 is compatible with USB 3.1, 3.0, as well as Thunderbolt 3/4/5.
Rugged and Travel Safe
Designed to endure the elements with MIL-Standard 810F rating for shock, vibration, and dust resistance. Aluminum exo-skeleton with soft composite bumper keeps your files secure and surrounding gear safe.
Comprehensive Warranty
Every Glyph drive comes with our industry leading 3-2-1 warranty. Three years of full hardware coverage, including the cables. Two years of Level-1 data recovery, and one year of advanced replacement.
Production-Grade Storage
Glyph has been in the storage game for over 32 years and trusted by creative professionals around the globe. Whether you are a filmmaker, photographer, or aspiring music producer, you can trust Glyph when it matters most.
High-intensity isn’t just a marketing term.
These drives are built for real production environments. Long takes, large files, continuous writes, and deadlines that don’t pause for thermal throttling. When you’re dumping cards on set, backing up a full day of footage, or working directly off an external drive, performance isn’t about a momentary burst. It’s about whether your SSD can maintain speed hour after hour, terabyte after terabyte. That’s what we mean by high-intensity SSDs: sustained performance under sustained pressure.
Most SSDs aren’t designed for this kind of work.. but their specs won't admit it.
Nearly every drive on the market is advertised using peak speeds measured in short, idealized bursts. In real workflows, those speeds collapse once caches fill and heat builds. The result: transfer times that stretch unpredictably and slowdowns you can feel in the middle of a job. We design our drives around sustained throughput, not headline numbers. The chart below illustrates what we're talking about.
How Long to Write 1TB of Media?
We compared Atom EX40 to the fastest available portable SSDs from other manufacturers and asked a simple question. How much time to write 1TB of media? (Test machine: TB5 equipped Mac Studio, M4 Max/4TB SSD/128GB RAM)
| SSD Brand | Data Written | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Glyph Atom EX40 USB4 2TB SSD | 1TB | 4:53 |
| Sandisk ExtremePro USB4 2TB SSD | 1TB | 9:19 |
| Lacie Rugged SSD Pro Thunderbolt 5 4TB SSD | 1TB | 9:50 |
| OWC Envoy Ultra Thunderbolt 5 2TB SSD | 1TB | 11:55 |
| Oyen U34 USB4 4TB SSD | 1TB | 12:01 |
| ProGrade Digital PG10 v2 USB4 2TB SSD | 1TB | 12:06 |
Full Specifications
| Connectivity |
USB4 Type-C (40Gb) (Compatible with USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt 3/4/5) |
| Transfer Speed | Up to 4,000 MB/s |
| Capacities | Up to 8TB |
| Power | Bus-Powered |
| Compatibility |
Formatted for macOS Compatible with Windows (via reformat) |
| Cooling Design | Fan-less heat dissipation |
| Dimensions |
Retail Box: 4.1" x 6.2" x 1.65" Drive: 2.8" x 4.5" x .8" |
| In The Box |
Glyph Atom EX40 External SSD USB4 Type-C to C 30cm cable Rugged removable external cover |
| Warranty |
3 Year Full Hardware 2 Year Level-1 Data Recovery 1 Year Advance Replacement |
| Part #'s |
A40EX1000 (1TB) A40EX2000 (2TB) A40EX4000 (4TB) A40EX8000 (8TB) |
What Transfer Speeds To Expect?
Atom EX40 can only run as fast as the port / computer you're connected to. Please reference the below chart to find out what real world performance numbers you can expect with your setup.
| When connected to | Runs as | Up to speed |
|---|---|---|
| Mac w/ Apple Silicon + TB3/4 | USB4 (40Gb) | 3,500 MB/s |
| Mac w/ Apple Silicon + TB5 | USB4 (40Gb) | 4,000 MB/s |
| USB4 (40Gb) port on any PC | USB4 (40Gb) | 4,000 MB/s |
| Thunderbolt 4 port on any PC | USB4 (40Gb) | 4,000 MB/s |
| Thunderbolt 3 port on Intel Mac or PC | USB (10Gb) | 1,050 MB/s |
| USB-C (10Gb) port on iPad, Mac, or PC | USB (10Gb) | 1,050 MB/s |
FAQs
Follow this link for Windows formatting instructions: Link