The Genki SavePoint is a Fast and Tiny M.2 SSD Enclosure

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Four textured portable chargers are displayed against a light background. From left to right, they are orange with wavy ridges, gray with vertical ridges, blue with horizontal waves, and teal with a geometric pattern. Each features a lightning bolt symbol.

Earlier this year, Human Things successfully got a batch of handheld gaming accessories backed on Kickstarter, and that included the Genki SavePoint — a tiny M.2 2230 SSD enclosure with a magnetic back and 100-watt pass-through charging.

That Kickstarter was extremely successful, with over 6,000 backers pledging more than a million dollars.

While aimed at gamers, the price and capability of the SavePoint makes it particularly useful for content creators, too — especially those who like to shoot on iPhone. It’s MagSafe compatible, features an integrated heat sink, has pass-through charging, and works with both an iPhone and a computer. As a bonus, it’s both an off-the-shelf SSD like any other photographers are used to picking up but it’s also available as just an enclosure. In both cases, the internal SSD can be swapped out, which is a first for portable storage solutions that PetaPixel has tested.

A person holding a smartphone stabilizer rig with a smartphone mounted on it. The rig has multiple attachments, including a microphone and cables. The person is wearing a smartwatch and a blue patterned shirt.

The SavePoint is designed to support mobile gaming — read: the Steam Deck — so it needs to be able to run AAA games directly from the drive and, as an added bonus for that crowd, boot external operating systems. That means it needs to be capable and fast, which are features photographers and videographers also value. Human Things promises 10 Gbps high-speed data transfer via USB 3.2 Gen 2, which is more than fast enough to support iPhone ProRes Log at all frame rates. As a bonus, the SavePoint has a second USB-C port that supports 100W fast charging, so the tiny SSD is capable of transferring data and power to an attached iPhone during a shoot.

The Genki SavePoint features an integrated heatsink that also acts as the main design element of the tiny device. Under the heat sink is the mounting point for the M.2 SSD which is, as mentioned, user-interchangeable via the included hex wrench which releases the heat sink and provides access to the M.2 port.

A wooden desk holds two memory cards side by side. On the left is a card with a wavy purple design and lightning bolt symbols. On the right is a black PlayStation 2 8MB memory card. Nearby are parts of a laptop and a USB hub.

Human Things offers the SavePoint in two configurations: just the enclosure (in four styles and colors) for $49 and with an included proprietary SSD (made in conjunction with Micron; it is, specifically, a M.2 NVMe 2230 PCIe Gen 4.0). The 512GB model is $119.99, the 1TB option is $169.99, and the 2TB option is $249.99. PetaPixel tested the 2TB version, however, at the time of publication, the only available option to buy is the enclosure. The company says it intends to sell the bundled SSD option, though, so that is coming eventually.

a lightning bolt and Wi-Fi signal. The background is a smooth, metallic surface.

In testing, the Genki SavePoint was extremely impressive. When empty, the speeds rivaled or outperformed all other portable SSDs in the non-Thunderbolt/USB 4.0 class that PetaPixel has tested and was most impressive when it came to write speed which clocked in at 1,069 MB/s.

A disk speed test interface shows write speed at 1069.9 MB/s and read speed at 915.2 MB/s. A compatibility chart below details performance for various formats, with checkmarks and speed values indicated for Blackmagic RAW, ProRes 422 HQ, and H.265.

When full, the SSD slowed a bit as expected on the write speed front to 913 MB/s but still registered an impressive 1,014 MB/s read speed.

Screenshot of a Disk Speed Test application displaying results. The write speed is 1014.7 MB/s and the read speed is 913.3 MB/s. Checkmarks indicate compatibility for various video formats and resolutions, including NTSC/PAL, 720p60, and 1080i60.

When emptied, and with the heat sink working to its maximum, the SavePoint registered 912 MB/s read and 1,025 MB/s write performance. Overall, it is the most impressive showing from a non-Thunderbolt SSD that PetaPixel has tested so far outside of the USB 4.0 ProGrade PG10. Head-to-head with that impressive SSD, the Genki SavePoint is slower but it is also a fraction of the size.

A disk speed test interface showing two gauges for write and read speeds at 1025.7 MB/s and 912.7 MB/s. Below, a table indicates video format compatibility with read/write speeds for Blackmagic RAW and ProRes 422 HQ.

The one downside of the Genki SavePoint is how hot it gets: during the second and final tests, the heat sink became too hot to touch — it felt like the top of an active stove. That is probably a good sign, however, since it manages to keep the SSD cool enough that there wasn’t any indication that it was thermal throttling. Users will just want to make sure to keep their hands clear.

Seq1M, Rnd4k, and Rnd4k Q32. Heights vary, highlighting performance differences.

While some gaming enthusiasts felt that the Genki SavePoint was priced too high for what it is, compared to options in the photography and content creator space, it’s extremely well priced. The 2TB version is, as mentioned, $249.99. That’s how much OWC wants for the 1TB version of the Express 1M2 and just a bit more than Crucial asks for its X10 Pro and Samsung wants for the T7. Given that it’s faster than both and offers the ability to easily swap out the SSD, the SavePoint earns its asking price.

The Genki SavePoint is available directly through the company’s online web shop as well as through Amazon.

Image credits: Photographs of the SavePoint via Human Things.

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