INTRODUCTION

   Unlike most people i know who choose portable drives based on speed and external size i choose them based on storage capacity. My reasoning is very simple really, what good will blazing fast speeds be to me if the storage capacity of the drive i carry around with me is less than the what i need at any given time? Needless to say, the ideal scenario is always a portable SSD with a large enough storage capacity but due to such models currently priced many times over regular portable hard drives they are clearly not for everyone. Recently Toshiba updated their Canvio line of 2.5" portable hard drives to include the latest Basics models and today I’m testing the 4TB variant.

   Toshiba Electronics Europe GmbH (TEE) is the European electronic components business of Toshiba Electronic Devices and Storage Corporation. TEE offers European consumers and businesses a wide variety of innovative hard disk drive (HDD) products plus semiconductor solutions for automotive, industrial, IoT, motion control, telecoms, networking, consumer and white goods applications. The company’s broad portfolio encompasses integrated wireless ICs, power semiconductors, microcontrollers, optical semiconductors, ASSPs and discrete devices ranging from diodes to logic ICs. TEE has headquarters in Düsseldorf, Germany, with branch offices in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom providing sales, marketing, and engineering.

   The new Canvio Basics line of portable hard drives by Toshiba is currently available in 4 storage capacities (500GB/1TB/2TB/4TB) and sports a black matt hard plastic enclosure. Inside the 4TB variant which i have here with me today Toshiba has placed none other than their very own MQ04UBB400 2.5" SATA III hard drive (5400RPM/16MB cache) which we've also seen used with past models (to be honest because of this i was expecting something newer). Needless to say, since hard drives are nowhere near as fast as SSDs the interface of the new Canvio Basics line is as expected USB 3.1 Gen 1 and as for warranty typically Toshiba covers the entire Canvio Basics line with a 2-year limited one.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

As usual at the front of the box we find the company logo just over a product picture.

System compatibility is listed on the right side in both English and French.

The various Toshiba storage product lines are listed on the left side.

Turning the box around we find the primary "features" listed in 10 languages.

Along with the Canvio Basics portable drive inside the box you'll also find a USB cable (USB-A to Micro-B) and the quick start guide.

THE CANVIO BASICS 4TB

The Canvio Basics 4TB weighs 217.5g and measures just 109mm in length, 78mm in width and 19.5mm in height.

As always to have a better idea about the size of the drive at hand i placed the Canvio Basics right next to the Armor A65B and A85 drives by Silicon Power.

A small activity LED is located on the right side of the drive.

Just next/under the activity LED we find the USB Micro-B port.

At the base of the enclosure, we find numerous certifications and of course the serial and part numbers.

The MQ04UBB400 2.5" SATA III drive has been used with at least two Toshiba portable drives in the past (perhaps that's also why Toshiba chose it once more).

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   Keeping things simple so even people new in the field of computers can understand will always be our way so once again our testing procedure is almost exactly the same as the one, we use with 2.5/3.5" external docking stations. This time however we will be comparing the product at hand with a wide range of 2.5" portable drives and standalone 2.5" enclosures all of which were benched using a HGST 7K750 SATA II hard disk drive. Our standard selection of benchmark suites is used here as well including the famous HD Tach RW (Long Bench 32mb Zones), HD Tune Pro (read/write -when possible- speeds), Sisoftware Sandra Pro (Read/Write - also when possible- speeds), AIDA64 (Linear Read/Random Read), Crystal Disk Mark x64 (100MB/1000MB read/write speeds) and finally the quite outdated yet highly reliable ATTO 2.47 (Max Read/Max Write speeds). Every test is repeated for a total of 6 times and after that the average (not peak) numbers are recorded into the charts.

   As always, every test was performed in a fresh installation of Microsoft Windows 10 Pro with every update installed up to the date of this review.

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK X64

TEST RESULTS – TEMPERATURES

CONCLUSION

   As clearly stated by its name the Canvio Basics is a rather basic portable HDD which does its job well. Read and write performance is very good and that combined with its somewhat large capacity of 4TB means it should be more than just enough for the majority of users. The enclosure may not be rugged but it’s quite compact and that’s something many people will obviously like (I’d prefer if it was rugged however). Finally, as mentioned earlier the MQ04UBB400 drive used once again by Toshiba may already count over 4 years in the market but it hasn’t stood out in a bad way and so that could mean it’s durable enough.

   With a retail price currently set at USD91.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and at 119.72Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) the Canvio Basics 4TB Portable Storage by Toshiba is priced extremely well, especially on the other side of the Atlantic. Long story short the Canvio Basics may not impress but still it performs very well, it’s compact and offers good storage capacity which is why it gets the Golden Award.

PROS

- Overall Quality
- 4TB Capacity
- Very Good Performance
- Compact
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- None