A Strong Aluminum 10GBps NVME enclosure that looks and feels solid

Unboxing

• Toolless NVME enclosure

• Rubber shock case

• Short USB-C to USB-C cable

• A leaflet.

• This is also supposed to come with a thermal pad but mine was missing from the packaging.

The USB-C to USB-C cable does not come with a Type-A adaptor so you may need a dongle, your own USB cable or an adaptor to plug this into certain devices.

Design and Build Quality

The Lexar E300 immediately imparts a sense of quality and durability. Its aluminium casing serves a dual purpose: providing a sophisticated aesthetic and acting as a heat sink to passively cool your NVMe drive. This cooling ensures both extended drive lifespan and sustained high performance during demanding workloads.

Setup

The E300's tool-free installation is an absolute breeze. A simple rear clip allows you to slide out the internal mounting tray, offering an easy-to-use interface and a secure, tool-free clip to hold your NVMe drive in place. The enclosure generously accommodates 2230, 2242, 2260, and 2280 drive lengths. 

Upon connecting the enclosure to a Windows computer, your drive should be instantly recognized, though you might need to format it before use.

Performance 

The Lexar E300's 10Gbps interface provides a significant speed boost over traditional SD cards. While it will technically support faster NVMe drives, the interface caps those drives' read and write speeds at around 1GBps.  With a PCIe Gen 4 drive installed, I achieved real-world maximums of 1073MBps (read) and 1068MBps (write). This kind of performance delivers reliable speed and the longevity you'd expect from a quality NVMe enclosure.

Of course, the maximum speed you achieve comes down with lots of smaller file transfers but this is still more than you’ll get from SD cards and other storage devices.

Conclusion:

The Lexar E300 delivers an attractive design, robust construction, and user-friendly setup. While 20Gbps and 40Gbps NVMe enclosures exist for maximum cutting-edge speeds, they require compatible devices and come at a significantly higher price premium. For most users, the E300 strikes a compelling balance between price and performance.