CONCLUSION

   The Stream S03 2TB USB 3.0 PHD may not feature a rugged enclosure like the Armor series and thus doesn't offer the best possible protection against drops, dust and water but largely thanks to the Samsung/Seagate SpinPoint 2.5" drive used it leaves the A60 far behind in terms of read/write performance. Obviously that's not a strange result since the SpinPoint drive by Samsung/Seagate has a higher rotation speed (5400 vs 5200) and larger cache memory (32MB vs 8MB) compared to the WD Green used in the A60 (although we had no way of knowing that Silicon Power had used a better drive with the S03 prior to opening the enclosure) but I don’t know why Silicon Power isn’t using this particular model with all their latest PHDs. Certainly as many of you know my "favorite" external PHD by Silicon Power is still the Armor A80 model since i consider it to be the tank of portable hard drives but i certainly wish it had the same performance as the Stream S03 (on a side note the 2TB just might so we'll do our best to check it out as well).

   2TB portable hard drives haven't been around for that long so their price is not what many would call "good" still as we speak the Stream S03 2TB USB 3.0 model retails for around USD130 inside the USA and for 125Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) so it's slightly cheaper compared to the A60 2TB model. Of course in the end most people will need to choose between performance and durability and although that's not going to be the easiest choice ever still i think that not everyone needs a rugged PHD model. Overall the Stream S03 may not be the perfect PHD due to its regular enclosure but it's very fast and that's why it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Size
- Fingerprint & Scratch Resistant Enclosure
- Very Good Performance
- Low Temperatures
- SP Widget Software (Free Download from Silicon Power)
- 3 Years Warranty

CONS

- Regular Enclosure (Not Rugged)