Seagate Backup Plus Portable 5TB Review
Seagate has recently released its latest addition to the portable hard drive family with the Backup Plus Portable. This drive is offered in 4TB and 5TB options and is completely portable with no AC or external power connection required.
The Backup Plus Portable features USB 3.0 and is backwards compatible with USB 2.0 for all those old PC owners out there and can be used with both Mac and Windows operating systems. It also features automatic file synchronisation to assist with backing up files.
There weren’t many changes at all contrasting to the predecessor that was released in 2016, with Seagate also releasing the same colour apart from the new light blue colour. However, quick research shows that the 2016 version received 19,000+ 4-Star reviews on Amazon.. Not bad.
The dimensions of the new Backup Plus Portable are:
115.3mm x 80mm x 20.9mm
It fits relatively well in the hand but is certainly a much larger form factor than the Backup Plus Ultra Touch, or Backup Plus Slim, or SSD’s which are so small these days. That said, it feels sturdy in the hand, weighing in at 265 grams. Definitely one of the heaviest portable hard drives, but with 5TB of storage and no external power outlet needed, you can’t go wrong!
The Backup Plus Portable also comes with:
– 2 months Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan ($20 value)
– 1 year Mylio Photo Organisation Plan ($50 value)
These may be justification for slight price hikes to previous products, however they are great additions for those interested in testing out some apps before purchasing.
You will also get 2 years limited warranty by Seagate, on the box it states that this could be 3 years depending on local laws as well. Seagate also provides their recovery service for other hard drives, but not this one unfortunately.
As a whole, the Backup Plus Portable is designed simplistically but with a modern look thanks to the textured, polished aluminium finish. Seagate offers the drive in black, silver and light blue. The drive has Seagate branding, the USB input and an indicator drive on the front, and all the regulatory compliances, serial number/part number and capacity on the back.
Performance wise, we utilised the the BlackMagic disk speed test on a current generation iMac as well as a 2MB sequential test on a current model Lenovo Thinkpad laptop for Windows testing and for comparison purposes.
For comparison purposes, the Backup Plus Portable will be compared to our recently reviewed Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch 2TB.
In BlackMagic we recorded the following speeds:
Mac
Backup Plus Portable: 140.1MB/s read and 139.7MB/s write
Backup Plus Ultra Touch: 125.3MB/s read and 124MB/s write
Windows
Backup Plus Portable: 142.4MB/s read and 141.6MB/s write
Backup Plus Ultra Touch: 120.5MB/s read and 118.6MB/s write
With 2MB random, our Backup Plus Portable posted 15.60 IOPS read and 39.14 IOPS write. The Backup Plus Ultra Touch posted 18.4 IOPS read and 15.2 IOPS write.
Overall, we were fairly impressed with the performance of the Backup Plus Portable, particularly that we could obtain such high speeds, with 5TB of storage and no power. This is great for those travelling that need to carry literally their life with them and we would highly recommend this product if you require plenty of storage and quick speeds.
See our unboxing and review video here: