Dear visitors, I will review the products here without using any complicated technical terms (which are used by giant product review sites) & will try to make it as simple as possible, so that its easy to understand anybody who doesn't have any detailed technical idea about the product & will also make them to take decision without any confusion whether they should go for it or not!
Everybody of us wants to secure our precious & memorable data either its photos, movies or songs for that it needs a good backup device which offers good speed, enough space that comes with affordable price tag too. Today, I want to introduce you with the fastest portable hard drive available in the market, BUFFALO MINI STATION STEALTH 1TB USB 3.0 PORTABLE HDD,
- Lets have a quick look over it-
- PROS:
Fastest data transfer I have observed yet!
Simple & attractive design
Activity light is easy to see
No external power required
Fits easily into pocket
- CONS:
Built quality is not that strong
Design not very sleek
- REVIEW:
The Buffalo MiniStation Stealth USB 3.0 drive gives you much more than it's price of $105 (you may get it for even less at amazon). It is bundled with many handy & useful apps with128-bit software encryption, a good backup tool & an extra utility for boosting the transfer speed. Its worth to note here that this hdd is both USB 2.0 & 3.0 compatible!
- DESIGN:
The size of Buffalo MiniStation Stealth is as same as the WD My Passport Essential & the LaCie Rikki, but it's little heavier, at 7.8 ounces. Still, the MiniStation Stealth is much lighter than the 9.9-ounce Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex and the 14.4-ounce Iomega eGo. The no-frills Buffalo drive comes in all black, and the plastic enclosure feels slightly cheap, especially compared to the aluminum LaCie Rikiki drive.
- SETUP:
Installation of the MiniStation's software was fast & easy. The Buffalo Backup Utility uses a tree structure that makes it easy to choose files for backups. However, the design of the app looks average, like a vintage Windows program. You can create scheduled backups, and it also shows a helpful thumbnail of your desktop at the time of the backup. You can't select specific folders to back up on your laptop, but you can exclude the ones you don't want.Each of the Buffalo utilities--Backup, Secure Lock Mobile, and TurboPC--is a separate program, so installing them takes extra time. Buffalo's utility only works with Buffalo's own hard drives.
- PERFORMANCE:
During data transfers, the Buffalo MiniStation Stealth emits a bright blue light when connected to USB 3 PORT & green light when hooked up to USB 2 port (interesting huh?)
The data transfers occurred speedily, due to the Turbo Copy tool included with the drive. The transfer time taken for a 5GB folder of media files & documents from PC to hdd was only 1 minute 20 seconds @ 64 MBPS, the fastest of the drives I have seen. The closest competitors were the Iomega eGo and the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex, which took 1:26 @ 59.5 MBPS.
During the reverse process of reading the same 5GB folder from the hdd, the Buffalo drive's fell to the lower middle of the competition & took 1 minute and 55 seconds @ 44.5 MBPS to finish the transfer. This leads Buffalo drive near the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex @ 71.1 MBPS, but it's much better than the LaCie Rikiki's 36.6 MBps transfer rate.
- VERDICT:
I liked the well-designed tools included with the WD drive. As far construction is concerned, the LaCie and Iomega drives were better constructed. However, the $105 Buffalo MiniStation Stealth gets good marks due to its blazing fast speed.
- TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:
Capacity : 1 TB
RPM : 5400
Connectivity : USB 3 & USB 2
Read speed : 44 MBPS
Write speed : 64 MBPS
Size : 3 X 4.5 X 0.7 inches
Weight : 221 Gms
- RATING- 4/5
- RECOMMENDED: YES