INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   As storage capacity needs increase at work and/or at home naturally so do our portable storage needs and although manufacturers have yet to close the gap between 2.5" and 3.5" external drives (highest capacity 2.5" portable drive currently is 4TB whereas the highest capacity 3.5" desktop has hit 10TB) even 1TB models seem to do ok in catering to the needs of most consumers today. However not everyone has the same demands and/or needs so since 1TB of storage space may not be quite sufficient most manufacturers also offer their portable hard drive models in several different capacities all the way up to 2/3/4TB. Unfortunately there aren't really that many 4TB models currently available in the market to choose from and so today instead we decided to take a look at the 2TB model of the Lacie Porsche Design Mobile Drive.

   LaCie, the premium brand of Seagate technology, designs world-class storage solutions for photographers, videographers, audio professionals, and other power users. With leading technology, performance, quality, and customer support, LaCie helps you realize your creative vision. We differentiate ourselves with a focus on design, unmatched technical performance, and long-term reliability. Since 1992, we have collaborated with visionary designers to bring you cutting-edge products. From Ziba Design to Porsche Design GmbH, as well as Karim Rashid, Ora-IIto, and Philippe Starck, a who’s-who list of prominent designers have made their mark on our products. The talent of these designers ensures that you are not just getting a way to store your files — you are buying a product where design and technology merge to result in complete usability. For the past 15 years, we have also had a close partnership with Scottish designer Neil Poulton, who designs all of our professional products, including our award-winning Rugged™, d2, 2big, 5big, and 8big Rack storage solutions. At LaCie, we protect your life’s work. And we expand what’s possible.

   The Porsche Design Mobile Drive (currently available in 500GB/1TB/2TB capacities) is the very first portable hard drive by LaCie to ever reach our lab so we were somewhat impressed to see that although it's yet another USB 3.0 (5Gb/s) compatible one it uses a type-C connector instead of the usual one we find with such drives. The end result may not be any different in terms of performance but type-C connectors are much harder to remove than regular USB 3.0 ones and thus are considered more reliable and durable. As for housing material as expected from a premium company such as LaCie they used aluminum which is not only lightweight (193g for the 2TB model) but also helps keep the drive inside cooler compared to plastic enclosures. Speaking of drive inside the 10mm thick enclosure of the 2TB Porsche Design Mobile Drive sits a 7mm thick Seagate ST2000LM007 2.5" SATA III HDD that features a rotational speed of 5400RPM and 128MB of cache. LaCie also bundles backup and data security software with the Porsche Design Mobile Hard Disk Drive, covers it with a 2 year warranty and has also intergrated an power-save feature (eco mode) which you have total control over via the LaCie desktop manager.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 You can see part of the drive from the front of the box along with its available capacity and type-C connectivity.

 

 

The Porsche Design Mobile Drive is just 10mm thick and LaCie dedicates the left side of the box for it.

 

 

Showcased at the rear of the drive is the type-A/C to type-C USB 3.0 connectors along with the 2 year warranty.

 

 

Inside the box you will find the Porsche Design Mobile Drive, warranty information card, quick install guide and the type-A to type-C and type-C to type-C USB 3.0 connectors.

 

 

THE PORSCHE DESIGN MOBILE DRIVE 2TB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The Porsche Design Mobile Drive is available in silver and gold colors and measures 128mm in length, 84mm in width and 10mm in height (the sandblast finish with the beveled edges although not very easy to see add to the looks and feel of the drive).

 

 

Typically to have a better idea about the size of the drive in our hands we placed the LaCie Porsche Design Mobile Drive 2TB right next to the A80 2TB PHD by Silicon Power, the Slim 1TB by Seagate and the Backup Plus Ultra Slim 1TB again by Seagate.

 

 

The serial number, barcode and several certification logos are all placed on a small sticker at the rear of the drive.

 

 

As expected the type-C port is placed at the rear of the drive right next to a white activity LED.

 

 

SOFTWARE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
The Porsche Design Mobile Drive comes with the LaCie setup assistant inside which among other things asks you whether or not you'd like to divide the drive in FAT32 and NTFS partitions (and if so how much should each be).

 

 

You can use the Genie Timeline (free version) to perform scheduled or immediate backups of either specific data or your entire drive.

 

 

The LaCie desktop manager contains information such as the drive ID, connection type, total space and available space. It also allows you to configure eco mode by manually setting the idle time after which the drive should spin down (unfortunately although set in English the software is displayed in your local language).

 

 

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 September 22nd 2016.

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   The LaCie Porsche Design Mobile Drive 2TB may not be the fastest USB 3.0 model in our charts but it follows the fastest ones closely so in real world use I doubt anyone would be able to tell the difference. However although not the fastest in performance the Porsche Design Mobile Drive features the best looking and highest quality enclosure making it the ideal choice for people looking to get their hands on something different that stands out. The type-C connector was a nice surprise although I can’t say I liked the roughly 51cm long cable, not when many portable hard drives come with cables over 80cm in length. As for the bundled software the Genie timeline backup is very easy to use while the ability to adjust the eco mode through the desktop manager (although I hope eventually LaCie makes it so people can choose the displayed language) can be quite useful to certain users.

   At this exact moment the Porsche Design Mobile Drive 2TB USB 3.0 Type-C by LaCie retails for USD149.95 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 161.80Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) a price tag which is set quite high considering that the price of the previous model again by LaCie (thicker however) has taken a serious hit and now retails for roughly USD50/45Euros less. At the end of the day however the compact size of the Porsche Design Mobile Drive 2TB by LaCie along with its very high quality aluminum enclosure, the excellent read/write performance and the use of a type-C connector can’t be overshadowed by just its price and for that we give it our Golden Award.

PROS

- Very High Build Quality
- Compact Size (Just 10mm Thick)
- Excellent Overall Read & Write Performance
- Type-C USB 3.0 Connector
- Low Temperatures
- Desktop Manager Software (Eco Mode Adjustment)
- Available In Two Colors (Silver/Gold)

 

CONS

- Only Available In 500GB/1TB/2TB Capacities
- Price (For Some)