To help us provide you with free impartial advice, we may earn a commission if you buy through links on our site. Learn more

Freecom Mobile Drive XXS 3.0 500GB review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £55
inc VAT

Compact, reasonably fast and well-priced – it's a great mobile disk, although a little slow

Specifications

500GB hard disk, USB3, 13x80x110mm

http://www.amazon.co.uk

With the Mobile Drive XXS, Freecom has squeezed a 2.5in 500GB hard disk into an incredibly compact rubber enclosure that’s easily small enough to slip into a pocket for taking your files on the move. It also makes it easy to grip, so it’s unlikely to slip through your fingers and damage the internal components.

Freecom Mobile Drive XXS 3.0 500GB

With the disk’s spindle spinning at 5,400RPM, we weren’t expecting to be blown away by amazing file transfer speeds, even over USB3. Our large file tests proved us right, managing a fairly average 97.8MB/s read and 85.66MB/s write speed. Small files were equally underwhelming, managing 34.35MB/s reads and 17.05MB/s writes.

If you’re looking to perform regular system backups, you’ll appreciate the bundled copy of Nero BackItUp & Burn Essentials, which lets you create backups of your important files, as well as burn them to CD, DVD or Blu-ray disc if you have a compatible optical drive. It’s well laid out, with the more advanced features within easy reach if you need to set up schedules or individual file backups, but you can’t access your saved files through Windows – you’ll have to extract them using the program before you can open them.

Freecom Mobile Drive XXS 3.0 500GB

It might not be blazingly fast, but at just 11p per gigabyte it’s still one of the cheapest portable disks around. Thin and light, it’s ideal for taking on the move, too. If you can stretch that bit further, the faster-performing Seagate Backup Plus Portable 500GB is the better choice.

Basic Specifications

Rating ****
Award N/A

Storage

Hard disk Samsung HN-M500ABB
Capacity 500GB
Formatted capacity 465
Price per gigabyte £0.11
Disk size 2.5in
Interface USB3
Power connector USB3 from host
Spindle speed 5400rpm
Cache 8MB
Seek time 12.0ms
Weight 154g
Size 13x80x110mm
Power consumption idle N/A
Power consumption active N/A

Buying Information

Backup software included Nero BackItUp & Burn
Price £55
Warranty one year RTB
Supplier http://www.amazon.co.uk
Details www.freecom.com

Read more

Reviews