14 DAY TRIAL // Solid state drives may be getting less and less money-hungry, but hard disk drives continue to be much cheaper and capacious. That goes for both normal units (internal ones) and external units (portable or otherwise).
Not that there are any external storage devices that are all that hard to carry around, but some of them are large enough to need at least a handbag, and some need even an AC adapter for power.
ADATA didn't release one of that kind of storage device when it published its latest press release. Instead, it unveiled a fully portable, mobile one called HV100.
We say that not only because of the compact design and the ability to run on just the power of the USB 3.0 connection. There is another reason: the integrated G Shock Sensor Protection.
It is a component that will allow the newcomer to survive falls without any damage to the disks inside, or the mechanism. Provided the fall doesn't happen from very high up anyway.
The ADATA HV100 External Hard Drive
The USB 3.0 interface in theory has a top performance of 5 Gbps, which would translate into 625 MB/s. A speed that no storage device on the market is capable of, barring PCI Express SSDs which go a lot higher. In fact, even SATA III SSDs lack the flair to go beyond 555 MB/s.
Sure enough, the new portable HDD from ADATA isn't some sort of super-miraculous storage device with blinding data transfers or anything.
The company didn't actually say what rates we should expect (corporations rarely do). Real world speeds are a lot lower than the theoretical maximums. The newcomer should still squeeze 130 MB/s to maybe a bit under 200 MB/s though.
Needless to say, USB 2.0 ports are still supported, so that the unit may communicate with older PCs if necessary, though the speed will be limited to 480 Mbps (60 MB/s).
Availability and pricing
The ADATA HV100 Hard Drive, with capacities of 500GB, 1TB and 2TB, should start selling soon, if it's not already listed somewhere, for as yet unknown prices.
The units will be bundled with free copies of HDDtoGO and OStoGO software. The former “enables one to enjoy true mobility and leave no trace behind when working remotely from your office” while the latter lets you install a Windows OS via an external drive, something normally impossible on a computer.
Finally, the outer design is pretty simplistic, though the sandblasted smudge-free finish isn't quite the most basic option out there.
