I'm going to compare the new red capped version to the old silver capped version in this write up. Both are for Retina MacBook Pros, but they also come for the MacBook Air and non-Retina Pro laptops.
I don't know if it's simply the catching red colour, but this red MiniDrive excites me!
This version is packaged in exactly the same way as the earlier silver one, it comes with the same kind of wire (red also) to pull it out of the Mac once it's been inserted.
With respect to the silver version, the end cap looks much more defined and cleaner. The indents and channels appear sharp and of a higher quality. It's also ever slightly thicker, which is a good thing and I'll explain further down why. It's interesting that both the silver and the red capped version are marked as V2 even though the red one is a later revision (I expected a V2.1, but that's not a big deal).
Inserting this into the Mac did feel different with the red version. Because it is a bit thicker, the fit is much more snug, but as a result of this, the MiniDrive does not move in it's slot and doesn't disconnect any more. I'm very happy with this improvement, this makes it viable to use on the road when the laptop is prone to be bumped around.
When looking closely at the MiniDrive once it's been inserted, there are still small gaps around the round edges that the rMBP SD slot has. It would have been nice if these were filled completely, but the way it is now, it looks symmetrical and overall I'm happy with the end result.
So would I recommend this one? I would have to say yes this time around, the improvements have been made to make this into a much nicer product and the new colour is very nice. It would be great to see other colours made available (black anyone?) in the future too, but red was a very good start!
-i
