In a time when we are constantly surrounded by an endless stream of data, there is a chance that the device you’re currently using might be running out of storage. Now, this has given birth to a new wave of problems and possible solutions. Some of them are the portable storage devices like the My Passport HDD from Western Digital.
Western Digital has been at the forefront of the data storage peripheral revolution and has given countless solutions to the industry and public. One of the hottest lineups in their portfolio is the My Passport HDD which the brand updated early this year.
We got to try out the all-new My Passport HDD and here’s our review.
Box Contents
Here’s a complete list of items you get inside the box:
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- WD My Passport HDD
- USB Cable
- Documentation and Warranty Guide
Design
In terms of design, WD has kept the overall design familiar while decreasing the overall footprint of the HDD. It is now slimmer and slightly shorter than the outgoing product. The build is entirely done in high-grade plastic and will easily hold up over prolonged usage.
The drive is still available in a plethora of colours catering to the needs of every age group and gender. One complaint that we had with the My Passport HDD was the wonky connector which would pose issues in long run but thankfully that has been taken care off and the connectors feel sturdy enough.
Overall the drive is both light and compact enough that would be an ideal fit for most users. That being said, if you opt for a higher storage variant, let’s say something above 4TB would be slightly heavy and come at a larger footprint.
Performance
Being an HDD, you could have a rough estimate as to how it would perform but be ready to be blown away by the results. The new My Passport HDD comes in two specs, one with a USB 3.0 port and one specially made for Mac’s and comes with a Type-C port.
The model we have is the Windows spec and comes with USB3.0 port with backward compatibility meaning that it could work on a USB 2.0 as well but the data transfer speeds would be slow.
For our tests, we used a benchmarking app to get the read and write speeds tested and trust us they were blazing fast. The average read speed we got was around 110MB/s while the average write speeds were about 100MB/s. There are in line with the speed claims done by the brand, so no complaints there.
With the new My Passport, WD has taken note of the security concerns as well and the new HDD comes with password protection and 256-bit AES hardware encryption. Once the password protection is turned on, you’ll only be able to access the hard drive’s data if you enter the password. To set up this, you will have to make use of the companion application – WD Discovery.
Now this WD Discovery application comes in handy and used to backup data from your cloud storage or social media accounts. Currently, the software supports imports from Dropbox, Google Drive, Facebook, Instagram, and OneDrive and they worked flawlessly during our testing period.
Verdict- Should you buy it?
My Passport HDD is a great option for anyone looking to buy external drives to store or backup data. The new drives are compact, come with a password, and 256-bit AES encryption protection, so no headaches about your data security.
The only gripe we have is with the non-availability of a Type-C port on the same unit as well but that could be solved by going for the macOS spec of the same product. Coming in at sticker price of INR 4,499 the WD My Passport HDD gets our seal of approval.
