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