OWC1.0TB Aura Pro X2 SSD for MacBook Air (Mid 2013-2017) and MacBook Pro (Retina, Late 2013 - Mid 2015) (OWCS3DAPT4MB10)

An upgrade for my ageing but still very usable mid-2015 MacBook Pro 15in was in order after the existing 512GB SSD became full. I opted for a 1TB Aura Pro X2, with a view to bringing some performance gains along with simply more capacity.There certainly are performance increases. I found the Aura Pro X2 gets near the storage performance of Apple's latest M1-based Macs, according to Blackmagic Speed Test (hint: run this in safe mode to get a "best possible" performance measurement).Write speeds in particular have doubled compared to my Mac's old factory-installed Apple SSD.However read speeds, where performance is more likely to be seen day-to-day, is less impressive. There's a 35% increase in speed compared to my old SSD. This is certainly welcome, but this is not the doubling of speed the marketing suggests.You should note that the speeds you experience will vary depending on your type of Mac and the size of the Aura Pro X2 SSD you choose.Installation was straightforward for me, but I am used to working inside computers. The module was a little reluctant to fit into the mainboard socket but an extremely cautious bit of force got it in. It's perhaps worth mentioning that (I believe) the SSD comes preformatted in Apple's older HFS+ file format. Before installation you should remember to use Disk Utility to format it to the newer APFS, although there's technically no problem with using HFS+ (again, I believe).Previous reviewers here suggest sleep issues with portable Macs and the Aura Pro X2. I haven't experienced this. And somebody said that they got slapped with import duty and VAT on the Aura Pro X2 they bought. Again, I didn't encounter this and mine seemed to come direct from Amazon's warehouses (next day delivery). But do check to see who is supplying the one you order. If it says something like 2-3 weeks until delivery then it might be that it's being sent from Germany or similar. They should prepay the import and VAT duties, so ask in advance if you can.So in summary, this is a nice little upgrade for older Macs. But it's twice the price of a similar M.2 SSD upgrade (which you can fit in some Macs using an adapter). What swung it for me is the fact the Aura Pro X2 is engineered specifically for Macs, and I appreciate this feeling of confidence for something that is handling my very precious data.

To quote others, this drive breathed new life into my early 2015 "13 macbook pro. This 1TB finally allows me to store all on disk plus having over 400GB free. It was important for me to store all on disk so timemachine backups would not miss files on the iCloud. In addition to the added space my video editing program works better now, no skipping and stalling. Installation was pretty easy but my box had no instructions so one thing that confused me at first was not doing CMD + Option + r for booting to the newest OS version, once done it loaded flawlessly.

I decided to upgrade my Early 2015 MacBook Pro with a new battery and hard drive. The Aura SSD works just as promised and I now have double my original memory. There are two things to remember - update your Mac with the latest operating system before removing your old hard drive and follow Aura's own instructions to the letter (not your Mac) to re-boot! This is to ensure the Aura hard drive is seen by your mac.

I have managed to quadruple the storage capacity on my MacBook Air 2017 with this. Installing it is a doodle, and supplier’s video instructions were on point for that.I did wish the supplier had included information on the process of getting the laptop to work again after you have installed the ssd. Using Time Machine did not work for me. I don’t know why, but I tried calling twice, and in both cases, the files that were restored were corrupted and could not be opened; and some apps threw up errors, including my Apple ID.In case it’s helpful, I’ve listed below the steps that I took to get it to work eventually.Disclaimer: I’m not a computer engineer, this is just what I did - follow the steps at your own risk.1) Copy all you existing files on to an external disk e.g. a memory stick;2) Make note of all the software/applications that you installed in addition to macOS;3) Shut down the laptop4) Replace the ssd as explained in the supplier’s instruction video (Unscrew the back cover using a 1.2 mm Pentalobe screwdriver, lift the back cover off, disconnect the battery, unscrew the ssd holding screw using a T5 screwdriver, gently wiggle the ssd off. Reverse order for the new one).5) Hold down CMD+Option+R and press the power button. Don’t let go until the recovery mode has started.6) When recovery mode has loaded, use disk utility to erase/format the ssd as macOS Extended (Journalled). Without this step, the new ssd was not available for installing macOS.7) Install a fresh version of macOS, and allow it to complete. Do not attempt to restore from a Time Machine backup at this stage. When I tried it the results had errors.8) When the installation is complete, copy back your files and reinstall all the additional software that you wish to have. I tried using Time Machine here too, but it didn’t work - the software and files were corrupted in the process!This process takes longer and may be undesirable if you have a lot of highly configured software on the system. But it worked a treat for me. There were no errors showing up after. Total time to install macOS was just over 2 hours - be patient.At some point mine seemed to be stuck. For about 10 minutes it said there was less than a minute to go! I was almost force restarting it (again), before it restarted by itself and then completed the installation.