Other World Computing announced today the OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express/Mercury Aura Envoy as the industry’s first high-performance Solid State Drive upgrade and bus-powered enclosure bundle for 2010-2011 MacBook Air computers. Representing a ‘Dream Team’ of performance and convenience, the Mercury Aura Bundle includes a Mercury Aura Pro Express SSD that offers nearly 8x the factory maximum storage capacity along with extreme data rate speeds up to or exceeding 500MB/s — representing up to 68 percent faster real-world speed than the factory Flash SSD. After installing the Aura Pro Express in the MacBook Air, the factory SSD is easily converted into an external storage solution inside the Mercury Aura Envoy to complete the two-in-one storage upgrade.
Faster and Bigger Than Factory SSD
By combining award-winning SandForce technologies and Tier 1/Grade A NAND, OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express SSDs are built to exceed the factory SSD in both speed and capacity. Available in 3Gb/s speeds for the 2010 MacBook Air models and 6Gb/s speeds for the 2011 models, the Aura Pro Express gives MacBook Air owners bigger drive options…up to 480GB for up to 8x greater storage capacity versus original factory SSDs.
Re-tasks the Factory SSD as New External Drive
After watching OWC’s free how-to-install Aura Pro Express video showing this upgrade performed in 15 minutes, MacBook Air owners then re-task the factory SSD as a high-performance external drive with the Mercury Aura Envoy. As the industry’s only bus-powered (no AC adapter needed) external drive designed specifically for the MacBook Air, the Envoy’s tapered, 1.5 ounce aluminum housing complements the MacBook Air’s unique shape. No lightweight in the performance department, the Envoy’s USB 3.0 interface provides real-world data rates of over 200MB/s with original Apple MBA SSDs for high speed, portable backup and file storage as well as grab-and-go enjoyment of music, movies or videos.
Seven Bundles Available from $199.99 MSRP
The Mercury Aura Bundle comes complete with three installation tools and is available for immediate ordering in both 3G and 6G speeds with up to 480GB storage capacity:
- 120GB Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G SSD and Mercury Aura Envoy for MacBook Air 2011 $199.99
- 180GB Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G SSD and Mercury Aura Envoy for MacBook Air 2011 $279.99
- 240GB Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G SSD and Mercury Aura Envoy for MacBook Air 2011 $349.99
- 480GB Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G SSD and Mercury Aura Envoy for MacBook Air 2011 $799.99
- 180GB Mercury Aura Pro Express 3G SSD and Mercury Aura Envoy for MacBook Air 2010 $269.99
- 240GB Mercury Aura Pro Express 3G SSD and Mercury Aura Envoy for MacBook Air 2010 $349.99
- 480GB Mercury Aura Pro Express 3G SSD and Mercury Aura Envoy for MacBook Air 2010 $779.99
The Mercury Aura Envoy is also available as a $47.99 MSRP 0GB enclosure only for other external application requirements that benefit from external accessibility to Apple’s 2010 and 2011 MBA SSD modules.
“The Mercury Aura Bundle continues our streak of first-to-market with performance upgrades for the MacBook Air,” said Larry O’Connor, Founder and CEO, Other World Computing. “This potent, two-upgrades-in-one ‘dream team’ solution truly takes 2010 and 2011 MacBook Air machines to new levels of performance, convenience, and flexibility.”
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OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro Bus-Powered Portable Drive Now Offers USB 3.0 On ‘Triple Interface’ Model
OWC Announces Mercury Aura Pro As Industry’s First Available High Performance Solid State Drive For All 2012 MacBook Air Models
OWC Announces Mercury Aura Envoy as Industry’s First Bus-Powered Enclosure for Using Apple MacBook Air SSD as a Portable External Drive
This is a lost opportunity.
Why not provide an adapter that houses conventional laptop drives including SSDs and adapt that to the MBA’s connector thru an adapter. That is a far more versatile product than this product.
I believe what you’re describing is a simple USB 3.0 enclosure for a 2.5″ HDD/SSD – of which we carry several.
Awesome! I’ve upgraded to a 2012 model and now I can’t use my OWC SSD, I was thinking of buying this box since it is the best, more portable and good looking box. But I would love to have it with thunderbolt port. Do you plan to release a thunderbolt version of this box? I would be SUPER HAPPY TO BUY ONE OF THESE with thunderbolt :)
Hey Michael question where does it attach to the AIr? Thru the USB port on the left side? If so does that mean it covers over the earphone jack?
It connects to the computer via USB cable and does not block any ports.
Got the 480Gb beastie for my MBA 2011. Delivered halfway around the world in 48 hours, and fitted just fine – no problems. So now I don’t need to upgrade my MBP just yet, so I’ll wait and see what upgrade options become available for the MBP 2012 w/Retina over the next year.
What about the 2012 Macbook airs and MBP with retina dsiplay ?
http://blog.macsales.com/14090-not-a-lot-of-options-for-macbook-pro-w-retina-display
I sure do hope there will be SSD upgrades for the 2012 MBAs. US3 is a great compromise on bandwidth and price but is useless on the USB 2.0 ports of the older MBAs. The Envoy enclosure is really designed for the 2012 MBAs.
When compared to USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt, yes USB 2.0 is slower – but hardly useless. Most thumb drives are essentially the same setup – flash storage with a USB 2.0 interface. The Envoy essentially is flash storage with a USB 3.0 interface. Great for the superspeed when available, but still quite useful over USB 2.0 as well. Honestly, not much more speed is needed for use as a Time Machine backup or for storing a media library. I’ve kept my iTunes library on a portable USB 2.0 Mercury On The Go for quite a few years now.
As we’ve mentioned before, we are working on SSD upgrades for the 2012 MBA models. We were as surprised as everyone else at the change in connectivity. No ETA is available yet – the development from scratch on a new technology takes time. Once the drive itself is developed, it just makes sense that we’d update the Envoy as well to accommodate the removed flash storage too.