CONCLUSION

   After wrapping up all tests it seems I was partially right to worry about the performance of the MQ01UBB200 drive. The reason I say partially is because although the Canvio Alu is not the fastest USB 3.0 portable hard drive in our charts (it actually lands somewhere at the middle) still its read & write performance is not bad at all especially since a 10-15% difference will not make a difference, at least not to the majority of users out there. In terms of quality if I was to “ignore” every rugged enclosure 2.5” model to ever pass through our lab then the housing of the Canvio Alu is clearly only 2^nd best to the one used with the Seven model by Seagate (I don’t really need to point out that it does a very good job with the drives temperatures).

   Unfortunately since Toshiba sometimes launches different products inside the EU and different ones inside the USA the Canvio Alu 2TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive is not available on the other side of the Atlantic. Still you can find it inside the EU for just 103.32Euros (Amazon.de – Price depends on the color) a price tag which is quite justified. Quality, performance, capacity and a good price tag the Canvio Alu has it all and because of that it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Excellent Build Quality
- 2TB Capacity
- Very Good Performance
- Very Low Temperatures
- NTI Backup Now EZ Software
- 4 Available Colors
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- Size (Compared To the Backup Plus 4TB by Seagate)