INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Only 25 or so days before we go dark for our much anticipated Christmas vacations (which shouldn't last more than 10 days in total) and so we decided to mainly focus on reviews requested by some of you during the last 2 months. Needless to say we are already testing quite a few gaming peripherals for the past 2 weeks so there isn't really much time for anything else that requires time and effort to test, however since the primary concern of most of you have been 2.5" portable hard disk drives (much easier/faster to test) we gathered quite a few of the latest USB 3.0 models here to see which delivers the most bang for your buck. The first of those portable USB 3.0 HDDs is no other than the latest Touro Mobile Pro 500GB by HGST.

 

   HGST, a Western Digital company, is a market leader in enterprise hard disk drives and develops advanced hard disk drives, enterprise-class solid state drives, and external storage solutions and services that are used by large and sophisticated technology companies to store, preserve and manage data. HGST storage solutions have a reputation for quality, reliability and innovation. Our drives are trusted by the world’s high-transactional enterprises, Internet services companies, creative professionals, and consumer electronics and automotive system manufacturers to store the avalanche of new content resulting from cloud computing and services, virtualization, social networks, HD video and mobile platforms. HGST focuses on delivering innovative, customized storage solutions that are an integral part of a customer’s broader systems, infrastructure and application platforms ensuring a storage value proposition that addresses each customer use case and pain point. This consultative approach to storage coupled with technical expertise, a comprehensive customer support infrastructure, world-class operations and a broad portfolio of solutions sets a high standard for product and service excellence. Founded by the pioneers of hard drives in 2003, HGST became a separate and wholly owned subsidiary of Western Digital Corporation in March, 2012. HGST maintains its U.S. headquarters in San Jose, California and is marketed under the HGST brand name.

 

   The Touro Mobile Pro line of external HDDs has been around for almost a year now but since we never did get a chance to test one of these out in the past and also because HGST hasn't released a new model in the market we thought it would be nice if we finally took one for a ride. At launch HGST released two models, one with 500GB and one with 750GB however after a few months they updated the Touro Mobile Pro line so it currently has 2 models, the 500GB we have here with us today and a 1TB one. Both models feature 7200RPM HDDs, USB 3.0 connectivity and 3GB of HGST cloud storage allowing you to access stored files from anywhere as long as you have an internet connection. Design also plays a large role when choosing the ideal external portable HDD and HGST designed a very sleek and attractive product which should appeal a lot especially to Apple fans (due to its glossy exterior). Time to take a closer look and see just what the Touro Mobile Pro portable USB 3.0 HDD has to offer.

 

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HGST packs the Touro Mobile Pro inside a small box with a clear plastic window at the front.

 

 

The contents of the box and the product system requirements are printed at the left side in both English and French.

 

 

At the right side HGST is showcasing just how thin the Touro Mobile Pro drives are (14.5mm).

 

 

A few words about the product and a short presentation of the HGST Cloud service are present at the rear.

 

 

The package contains the Touro Mobile Pro drive, USB 3.0 cable, quickstart guide and a paper about the Cloud software.

 

 

 

THE TOURO MOBILE PRO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The black glossy (piano black) Touro Mobile Pro measures 126mm in length, 80mm in width, 14.5mm in thickness and weighs just 155g.

 

 

To showcase just how small the Touro Mobile Pro really is we placed it right next to its larger brother the Touro Pro 3.5".

 

 

The company logo is placed at the top of the unit (strangely enough it hasn't changed to HGST yet).

 

 

The USB 3.0 connector is fitted at the far end of the unit.

 

 

A small sticker at the rear contains the unit’s serial number, barcode and capacity.

 

 

TOURO CLOUD BACKUP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

According to HGST when you get their Touro Mobile Pro portable HDD you are also entitled to 3GB of their Cloud service. However on their webpage it's quite obvious that anyone can get those free 3GB (promotion) and not just Touro Mobile Pro owners. That's actually a good thing but it did strike us as a bit odd that's all.

 

 

 
The Cloud software is very easy to use, just check the things you want to backup from the 3 available options, adjust the advanced settings (enable/disable automatic backup) and start the upload. Once done you can share your files with your friends and family just with the use of a single URL.

 

 

 

 

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 2.46 (Max Read/Max Write speeds). Every test was repeated for a total of 6 times and after that the average (not peak) numbers were recorded into our charts. As always every test was performed in a fresh installation of Microsoft Windows 7 Service Pack 1 with every update installed up to October 27th 2012.

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - AIDA 64 / ATTO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK X64

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS – TEMPERATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Having spent quite a few years testing Hitachi GST products (now HGST) whenever i get to test one of their latest HDDs i pretty much know what to expect in terms of reliability and performance and the same goes for their Touro Mobile Pro line since it's basically an 2.5"/7mm HGST (Hitachi GST) 7200RPM packed inside a great looking piano black housing. Of course as expected the speed limits mechanical drives have (especially 2.5" ones) is the reason as to why we don't see large performance differences between enclosures and thus in the end there are other things to take under consideration such as temperatures, design and price. Well not really much to say either about the design since we did like it a lot (in the end however that always comes down to personal taste) or regarding the temperatures since the housing of the Touro Mobile Pro is the 2nd coolest one in our charts.

 

   With a current price tag set at USD65.99 inside the USA (Amazon) and at around 70Euros inside the EU the Touro Mobile Pro 500GB USB 3.0 portable HDD by HGST is placed right in the middle of similar products something which may drive away a small percentage of potential buyers who care not about performance and looks but rather just the price. Personally i don't think you can find something just as good as the Touro Mobile Pro for less and when i say just as good i mean in terms of design, quality and performance, that's why it comes highly recommended and gets our Golden Award.

  

PROS

- Build Quality
- Design
- Size
- Performance
- Temperatures 

 

 

CONS

- Price (For Some)