A drive with flexible connectivity options is often handy.
At the time of writing the largest portable drive offered by Seagate, the GoFlex Ultra-portable 1.5TB is a sleek black number with flexible connectivity options and a decent backup application.
For now, the drive is only available in a black mirror finish, and it’s slightly thicker than sub-terabyte drives. The 750GB version, for example, is 14mm thick and weighs 150g; the 1.5TB drive is 22mm thick and 280g. The other dimensions are roughly the same, however, and the 1.5TB unit is still very pocketable.
It also has a flexible interface, although it may be close to time that Seagate retired the whole GoFlex thing now that USB offers speeds fast enough to support full drive throughput. GoFlex is a system that allows the drive interface to be swapped out using a separate adapter. The USB 3.0 GoFlex can thus be converted to a FireWire or eSATA drive for around $20-$40, or a Thunderbolt drive for an outrageous $115.
The performance of the drive was very good in our tests. It comes with Memeo Instant Backup -- the same software that WD uses -- which is a tool that’s surprisingly capable for an application that comes free with the hard drive.
Available from Seagate www.seagate.com, retailing for $239.
APC rating: 8/10 (Highly Recommended)
