These days people like to carry their data around with them. Whether you are going on a vacation or a business trip, you would like to have easy access to your data, presentations, movies, music etc. And over the years, carrying data has become much easier. One can carry about thousands of gigabytes of data in their pocket. And realistically speaking, how what more could one want than 2-3 TB of storage?
Here is where WD kicks it up a notch. They’ve introduced a new line of hard-drives, namely the My Passport Portable Drive which are not only colorful but kinda stylish as well.
The new drive has an interesting design compared to its previous models. It really doesn’t look too much like the passport book, with its new squarish look and sharp edges. It is designed with a gradient color, with the textured part of the drive offering a more stylish look. For me the new styling doesn’t really make much of a difference. I mean, if it served as a certain function to the drive, I don’t really care for it and would actually prefer the previous ones with the curved edges. The 2,3 and 4TB variants are decently thick as well, 21.5mm x 81.5mm x 110mm to be precise. But then again so are most other drives with this type of storage capacity. However, the 1TB variant is much thinner at about 0.64 inch in thickness.
But here is where WD got me. The new line of drives come in about 6 colors — black, yellow, red, white, orange and blue, each with a matching cable to go with it. Now if you take backing up data as seriously as I take it, you can use the colors to categorize your data according to color, which I know sounds very kiddish, but goes a long way when you’ve been backing up your pictures since the 10th grade.
I’ve been using the 3TB variant for about a month now and I have to say that I am quite pleased with the way it performs. At work, we use it to copy games, which are decently sized transfers and it copied around 110MB/s via USB 3.0, which is above average. I mean it’s fast enough for pretty much everything you’d used an external hard disk for.
However, I was slightly disappointed when I realized that the drive didn’t use a USB-C port. Compatibility becomes an issue, even though performance doesn’t really get hampered. If we talk about security, the drive supports the 256 EAS encryption (an optional feature you can activate using included security software).
Verdict
I’d buy it. The drive does what you’d want a drive to do with good speed. It’s pretty sturdy this thing, even dropped like two three times and it works just fine. The security features are pretty tight and should make it hell for anyone else to try and get your data. The cool design is just an add on but not something I am too fond off, perhaps might just work as a conversation starter with a cute chick at the airport.
Specifications
Interface
USB 3.0
USB 2.0
Kit Contents
• Portable hard drive
• USB 3.0 cable
• WD Backup, WD Security and WD Drive Utilities software
• Quick install guide
Dimensions
2TB – 4TB
Height: 21.5mm (0.85 in)
Depth: 81.5mm (3.21 in)
Width: 110mm (4.33 in)
Weight: 250g (0.54lb)
1TB
Height: 16.3mm (0.64in)
Depth: 81.5mm (3.21 in)
Width: 110mm (4.33 in)
Weight: 170g (0.37 lb)
Operating Specifications
Operating temperature: 5°C to 35°C
Non-op. temperature: –20°C to 65°C
System Compatibility
• Windows 10
• Windows 8
• Windows 7
Limited Warranty
2 Years (Worldwide)
gamingninja
The drive does what you’d want a drive to do with good speed.