INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   As most of you know due to the somewhat recent HDD price drops and the continuous increase in storage capacity needs lately we've been focusing on storage related reviews from internal HDDs (consumer and enterprise grade) and up to external HDDs (both 3.5" and 2.5"). However it's important that don't lose sight of what's really important and that is to cover all our readers out there with our reviews and so although we've tested quite a few external 2.5" drives lately most of them were large capacity ones with rugged enclosures. Still although having an external HDD with a rugged housing is never a bad thing because of their size and design it's somewhat difficult to carry them around in your back pocket. Well luckily Toshiba has that covered with their brand new STOR.E SLIM 500GB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive.

 

   Toshiba Europe Storage Products Division (SPD) has remained at the forefront of the storage industry for over 40 years and is the world's only storage supplier that owns design, development, manufacturing, sales and other infrastructure functions spanning the enterprise, mobile and retail environments for both HDD and SSD products. Customers are original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), system integrators and distributors within the EMEA region. As a leading provider of integrated storage solutions and as the principal inventor of NAND flash storage, Toshiba sets many of today’s industry standards for storage technology. Throughout its history, Toshiba SPD has revolutionized the design and development of storage devices and its drives can be found inside the world's leading GPS navigation systems, consumer electronics, computers and enterprise solutions. In addition, Toshiba Storage Products Division offers an extensive range of advanced technology drives such as high durability 24/7, extended temperature and SSDs for the consumer, industrial, enterprise and automotive sector.

 

   As clearly revealed by its name the STOR.E SLIM is a portable hard drive with a very slim yet quite elegant brushed aluminum housing (available in black and silver) featuring USB 3.0 connectivity for very fast data transfer speeds. So thanks to the very slim exterior the STOR.E SLIM can virtually fit in just about every pocket there is so kudos to Toshiba for that since there aren't that many similar solutions out there. Certainly the interior matters just as much to some people (if not more) and so under the hood Toshiba has placed their very own MQ01UBF050 2.5" SATA II 500GB HDD (5400RPM/8MB Cache/7.5mm) that actually did surprisingly well in all our tests across the board. Time to see what the new STOR.E SLIM 500GB USB 3.0 portable hard drive by Toshiba is all about.

 

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Toshiba packs the STOR.E SLIM inside a rather small box with most of the front covered by a clear plastic allowing you to check the unit prior to purchasing it.

 

 

The product features are listed vertically on the right side.

 

 

On the opposite side we see the bundle contents and the compatible OS.

 

 

Moving at the rear Toshiba has placed the features and system requirements lists in 11 languages.

 

 

Inside the box you will find the STOR.E SLIM drive, user's manual, USB 3.0 cable and 3 warranty papers (1 worldwide one and two region specific).

 

 

 

THE STOR.E SLIM 500GB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As mentioned before the STOR.E SLIM drive features an elegant brushed aluminum housing which is surprisingly slim measuring just 107mm in length, 75mm in width and just 9mm in height.

 

 

To have a better understanding of just how small the STOR.E SLIM really is we placed it right next to a 2.5" HDD.

 

 

Toshiba has placed their logo at the upper left corner but it's not very easy to see unless you stand right above it.

 

 

The aluminum stripe placed at the middle of the enclosure adds to the overall appearance of the product.

 

 

The USB 3.0 port is placed at the top of the enclosure.

 

 

The corner right next to the Toshiba logo is actually an blue activity LED.

 

 

Various certifications logos, the electrical requirements, serial number, company URL, product number and the two barcodes are printed on a medium sized sticker placed at the rear.

 

 

 

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 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 March 1st 2013.

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   At first glance the STOR.E SLIM seems to be a portable hard drive focused mostly towards people who want an elegant design combined with a very small size, however when we finally finished testing the STOR.E SLIM one thought came to mind and that was the all-time classic saying to never judge a book by its cover. So thanks to the MQ01UBF050 2.5" SATA II 500GB HDD (5400RPM/8MB Cache/7.5mm) used by Toshiba the STOR.E SLIM has no problem going up against the competition while thanks to the aluminum housing it's temperature levels stayed quite low. The pre-loaded software package (NTI Backup Now EZ/Password Lock) is also a plus although not something we don't see quite often from the competition. The only downside we can think of with the STOR.E SLIM is its capacity of 500GB since it's not nearly enough, not when some manufacturers have already released 2TB models in the market. Toshiba can of course update the line with larger capacity variants in the near future but right now that's a big minus.

 

   Right now the STOR.E SLIM 500GB USB 3.0 portable hard drive by Toshiba (AKA Toshiba Canvio) currently retails for USD79.99 inside the USA (Amazon) and at around 70Euros inside the EU a price tag which i have to agree is not on par with most 500GB portable hard drives out in the market. Of course in the end you almost always get what you pay for and so for people who want the high quality brushed aluminum exterior along with the very slim design and the level of performance offered by the STOR.E SLIM then the price shouldn't be a problem. On the other hand if you care not about the size and type of enclosure and performance is not your top priority there are even 1TB models at around the same price tag currently available in the market. Personally although i always use a rugged portable hard drive for my sensitive data the STOR.E SLIM would be my first choice if i needed to carry data around with me and because of that it gets our Golden Award.

 

PROS

- Build Quality
- Design
- Size
- Very Good Performance
- Temperatures
- Pre-Loaded Software

 

 

 

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- 500GB Capacity Only