Love this little drive. Very happy that USB-C is starting to appear as an option on portable hard drives. I have owned the old style metallic Passport 5TB and the WD Elements 5TB and for me this is the best one yet.
The good:
- Huge 5TB capacity in a pretty small footprint. This drive is about the same size as the older Passport and Elements drives. The blue color makes it look a little slimmer.
- USB-C to USB-C transfer rates steadily above 130MB/s for large files.
- The USB-C cable includes a compact USB-A adapter so you can still use this with older computer ports giving full flexibility.
- Comes bundled with a very slim software installer for PC and Mac. I don't use the software but generally save it somewhere in case I need it before formatting the drive. Older passport used to include upwards of 500MBs of this software but these new installers are only a few MBs.
The not as good.
- The included cord is pretty short, It would be nice to have a little bit longer.
- The drive is no smaller than previous generations. I guess this is as small as spinning 5TB drives are going to get, now that SSD prices are coming down. Can't wait to get a 5TB SSD in this price range!
- The price is generally 10-30% higher than the older Passport. I don't know that the USB-C interface and faster transfers justify the higher end of that pricing.
I can't comment on longevity as I've only used the drive for a week, but so far it is fast, quiet and stable. I've always found WD drives to be reliable, but I never keep a drive in service longer than 2 years and always have a backup. I hope this one will be as reliable as my past WDs.
| Hard Drive | 5 TB Mechanical Hard Disk |
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