500GB Portable (2.5-inch) HDD Shootout
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Affordable and Handy Portable Storage
Affordable and Handy Portable Storage
As notebooks now outsell desktop computers, more folks require a handy storage sidekick to push, pull and share data easily among their many media entertainment devices and PCs at home, as well as systems at the office. We scanned the market prices for portable storage drives and the sweet spot is fast favoring the 500GB capacity point. Typical retail prices at the point of writing hover about the S$150 price point, but it can vary greatly depending on the shop and the actual model in question.
Take note though, when we mean external portable hard drives, we typically mean 2.5-inch drive based solutions. 3.5-inch external drive solutions are more suitable for the desktop due to their bulk and the associated connectivity and features.
We gathered seven of the most popular retail-ready 500GB portable drives available in the market and put them to through a reduced set of benchmarks than our normal hard drive and solid state drive testing. Of course, performance isn't everything in this portable drive space as ease of usability, aesthetics, warranty and support, as well as other handy tools and utilities that make up the entire drive's package count as well. So without further ado, we list the drives involved in this shootout to give you a quick overview of each of them:-
- Hitachi SimpleTough
- Iomega eGo Portable
- Samsung S2-500 Portable
- Seagate FreeAgent Go
- Toshiba Portable Drive
- Verbatim Executive Portable
- WD My Passport Essential
Model | Hitachi SimpleTough | Iomega eGo Portable | Samsung S2-500 Portable | Seagate FreeAgent Go | Toshiba Portable HDD | Verbatim Executive Portable | WD My Passport Essential |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Interface Type | USB 2.0 (mini-USB) |
USB 2.0 (mini-USB) |
USB 2.0 (mini-USB) |
USB 2.0 (mini-USB) |
USB 2.0 (mini-USB) |
USB 2.0 (mini-USB) |
USB 2.0 (micro-USB) |
USB Cable supplied? | Built-in (too short) |
Yes (long) |
Yes (too short) |
Yes (long) |
Yes (too short) |
Yes (long) |
Yes (too short) |
LED Activity Indicator? | Yes | Yes - but bad placement and too small | Yes - but bad placement. | Yes | - | Yes - but bad placement. | Yes - but too small. |
Water Resistant? | Yes | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Robust? | Yes - Shockproof | Yes - Drop Guard (up to 1.3m) | - | - | - | - | - |
Security | - | - | SecretZone feature (password protected area) |
|
Password protected data encryption | - | Drive Lock (256-bit h/w encryption + password protection) |
Special Features | - | - | - | - | - | USB Turbo Speed | - |
Software | Hitachi local backup |
|
Samsung auto backup | Seagate Manager |
|
|
WD SmartWare |
Carry Pouch? | - | - | Yes | - | - | Yes | - |
Dimensions | 149 x 104 x 32mm | 137mm x 89mm x 16mm | 111mm x 82mm x 17.5mm | 130mm x 80mm x 12.5mm | 127mm x 81mm x 16.5mm | 135mm x 85mm x 25mm | 110mm x 83mm x 15mm |
Weight | 267g | 180g | 170g | 160g | 170g | 170g | 200g |
Warranty | 3 years | 3 years | 3 years | 5 years | 3 years | 2 years | 3 years |
Price | S$189 | S$159 | S$149 | S$139 | S$149 | $165 | S$145 |
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