LaCie Rikiki 3.0
Among the more expensive models of this roundup, the Rikki's aluminium enclosure looks good and, overall, is noticeably thicker than the Iomega unit by about 4mm. On the disk itself, you’ll find installers for Genie Backup (Windows) and Intego Backup (Mac OS X) along with a utility to get you started with the Wuala on-line backup service. Once you sign up for Wuala, your LaCie serial number gets you a 1-year 10GB subscription at no additional cost.
It appears that the cost premium on this drive goes to something you could buy separately, if required. At least it comes with a two-year warranty and reads/writes at near enough 100MB/s if you have the 1TB drive.
Reg Rating 75%
Price £90 (500GB), £110 (750GB), £140 (1TB)
More info LaCie
LaCie Rugged 3.0
This is an old favourite of mine that has been on the market about a year now. It’s a similar approach to the IoSafe drive, but meant more to survive the toils of everyday life rather than extreme situations. Still, these drives are certified shockproof to the US Department of Defence MIL-STD 810F specification – MIL-STD 810F Method 516.5: Shock, to be precise.
Unfortunately, it’s still a fair bit more expensive than the conventional drives, but you do get a better GB/£ ratio than the IoSafe and it’s much more portable. Surprisingly, it is also faster than the IoSafe, achieving 109MB/s reads and 104MB/s writes. This is a worthy alternative if your daily commute does not take you through a warzone. Incidentally, LaCie has just announced the Rugged Mini, a USB 3.0 drive that shaves off around £40 from all the prices below, but doesn't have FireWire interface option.
Reg Rating 75%
Price £130 (500GB), £140 (500GB-7200RPM), £190 (1TB)
More info LaCie
Next page: Samsung M2 Portable 3.0
COMMENTS
Samsung M2 1Tb
Well it is now past the 'later this month', it now being the next month - so where is the Samsung M2 1Tb for £80?
Later this month?
It was already the 20th when you posted! Rather than use some marketeer's future-possibly-not-true price, why not simply quote the actual price that of the thing at the time of writing? Or, at the very least, make it clear that the quoted price is in some way proposed/fictional.
It almost smacks of false-advertising and makes me wonder what else in the review was based on PR-puffery rather than actuality.
GoFlex USB 3.0
Take a look at the connector to the drive.
Take a look again :)
I use mine on naked SATA drives, works a treat.
I vote the GoFlex USB 3.0 *ADAPTER* as best product.
The proprietary Seagate drives themselves appear reasonably well packaged. When connected up, the whole get up feels reasonably solid and reassuring. Sure, they are not as rugged looking as some of the offerings here, but the ability to just about grab any current SATA drive and connect it to one's USB 3.0 port cannot be underestimated, ie data recovery etc... Especially if your lappie doesn't have an eSATA.
or if you couldn't be arsed to buy a Seagate drive and just use naked drives....
re: That has been part of the problem.
Not just hi-end stuff - my £200 netbook (an Asus 1015PEM) has two USB3 ports, and very nice they are too...
Samsung price
Where do I buy the 1TB Samsung for £80? A quick look around shows the 640GB model at £100.
