CES 2012 is finally under way, and one of the biggest surprises of the event thus far comes courtesy of Victorinox, the guys behind the Swiss Army Knife. The company unveiled a pair of Swiss Army Knife-styled storage drives, one of which holds a capacity of 1TB.

What was unveiled

The company unveiled the Victorinox Slim 3.0 drive, a USB 3.0 drive which reads and writes faster than the now universal USB 2.0 drives. These drives can hold a maximum storage capacity of 128GB.
The highlight, however, was the Victorinox SSD drive, which houses a slim SSD drive in a Swiss Army Knife encasing. It is available in two flavours – one with the usual SAK implements like blades, scissors and a screwdriver – as well as a flight-safe knife. The big deal? It holds a maximum capacity of 1TB.

Big deal

In case that is lost in translation, that is one terabyte of data stored in your pocket and on your person at all times. Contrast that with the large stand-alone terabyte drives from just a year or two ago, and it puts in perspective just how much progress has been made in the storage industry.

Features

Other features include a world’s first Bi-stable graphics display allowing users to label content directly on the knife/drive, as well as a single connector that fits into USB 2.0, USB 3.0, eSata II and eSata III ports.

The company claims that the Victorinox SSD has the smallest high-capacity SSD in the world and on the market to date, further driving home just how much miniaturisation was needed to make the drive possible.

Pricing and release date

The Swiss Army Knife maker revealed that the Victorinox SSD and USB drives will be available in April 2012. The company, however, omitted what the respective drives will be priced at. We have a sneaky suspicion that the 1TB SSD will be quite pricey, given what the company has achieved with making it possible in the first place.

Following in the trails of iOmega, Western Digital and other portable hard drive vendors, Verbatim has unveiled its own USB 3.0 external drive. It’s called the Verbatim Store ‘n Go and will begin shipping soon.

Capacity and specs

The super slick, thin piano-black Verbatim USB 3.0 Store ‘n Go drives will be available in 500GB, 750GB and 1TB (1,000 GB) when they begin shipping next month, November 2010. They’re backwards compatible with USB 2.0 buses, too, so you needn’t fear about not being able to plug it into your older computers.

Other bells and whistles

Vebatim Store ‘n Go will ship with ‘Nero BackItUp and Burn software for Windows’, as well as a 5GB trial of Norton Online Backup. More over, for those who want to be sure their hardware won’t be packing up on them shortly, Verbatim’s 7-year limited warranty applies to this drive, too – but to be fair, do you think 1TB will even be a great deal of space 7 years from now? I don’t. So while you may never use that warranty, it’s certainly nice to have.

The slow charge

As we’ve mentioned previously, every new piece of hardware, whether it is a USB 3.0 laptop, or a USB 3.0 external drive, pushes the updated USB platform forward, and improves its ubiquity. For platform historians, the reality is the universal serial bus platform was not that widespread when the transition was made from 1.0 to 2.0, but with the transition from USB 2.0 to 3.0, the custodians of the platform are finding themselves trying to replace a platform with billions of devices built around it.

Pricing

No simple task, no doubt, but the Verbatim Store ‘n Go USB 3.0 external drive is doing its part. Verbatim has yet to announce the pricing for their new drives, but as soon as we know anything, we’ll let you know.

Our previous experience with Verbatim Store ‘n Go USB 2.0 drives has been good, so we’re looking forward to giving these a whirl when they arrive next month.

Following in the footsteps of rivals like Iomega, Western Digital external drives are also upgrading to SuperSpeed USB 3.0. The news is greeted with the kind of excitement only geeks with a deep need for speed have, but it does do a lot to further cement the presence – and eventual dominance – of USB 3.0.

Upgraded lines

The lines of Western Digital external drives that will be getting the USB 3.0 upgrade are the My Book Essential range, the My Passport Essential line and the My Passport Essential SE range, too. This is a pretty wide gamut of what Western Digital offers, with each of the external hard drives available in different colours, sizes, and different levels of portability.

Capacity

From smallest capacity to largest, My Passport Essential has the least capacity of the three drives, tapping out at 500GB. My Passport Essential SE is available in 750GB and 1TB (1,000GB). The large, more suitable for desk-based use, My Book can be purchased at 1TB, 1.5TB, 2TB and the current industry maximum of 3TB.

The big USB 3.0 fuss

The SuperSpeed USB 3.0 upgrade has been applied to all three drive ranges, at no additional cost over what they were priced during their USB 2.0 days. Speaking of USB 2.0, the drives are also compatible with that standard, since most people have yet to upgrade.

The big hoopla about SuperSpeed USB 3.0 technology is its transfer speed maxing out at about 150MB per second. That is super fast and a major step up compared to the 40mb/s transfer speed USB 2.0 capped out at.

Should you get it?

You’ll be hard pressed to find companies that are more recognised in this space than Western Digital external drives. Quality products, at an equally decent price, with nifty backup software and password protection bundled in, if you don’t already have a hard drive and you’re on the fence here, we recommend a hearty buy!

The slow, steady rollout of USB 3.0 devices continues with the Iomega eGo 500GB USB 3.0 external drive and while we’re all but ready to embrace faster transfer feeds, Iomega makes a silly omission that limits the full acceleration capabilities of the drive.

Specs

As the name suggests, the Iomega eGo has a drive capacity of 500GB and is USB 3.0 compliant. The bizarre design decision is that the drive spins at a limiting 5400rpm, which reduces the maximum transfer of data.

Design

Photo: Iomega

This external USB drive has a high gloss attractive finish. In many ways, it looks like a slightly miniaturised contemporary notebook, with its glossy black finish and counters. We would have preferred it were a smidgen smaller, bringing it in line with the Samsung G2 500GB external drive, but that’s just us nitpicking. Four rubber studs are added to the base of the drive so as to stop it from slipping off slippery surfaces, which is a neat touch. From a design point of view, there’s little not to like here, though we worry the glossy finish is crying to be scratched up through extended use.

Performance

The Iomega eGo 500GB external drive has very good but limited transfer speeds. When plugged into USB 2.0 slots, transfer speeds hover just below 30mb/s. When plugged into USB 3.0 slots, the average transfer rate is between 64mb/s and 65mb/s due to the favouring of a 5400rpm drive over a 7200rpm drive. While that may sound great, it’s slow when compared to the transfer speed on the equivalent Lacie Rugged 500GB USB 3.0 drive, which averaged over 80mb/s transfer rate.

The final say

We won’t lie and say we don’t like this 500GB external drive. It’s well built, and looks very elegant. Where the Iomega eGo 500GB USB 3.0 drive starts dropping the ball is in its unusual opting for the 5400rpm drive, which puts a limiter on the potential transfer speed on the drive. But the price is agreeable and Iomega is reputable.

As fast data transfer becomes a growing concern, coupled with the increasing demand for more storage space, data storage manufacturers have had to come to terms with an interesting conundrum or two. The Lacie Rugged 500GB USB 3.0 external drive aims to solve these problems, while tackling an additional one – heavy use.

USB 3.0 is nearly here

The standout feature of this 500GB USB external drive is its USB 3.0 support running at 7200rpm and its super fast transfer speeds. In controlled tests, the drive’s transfer speeds exceeded 80mb/s on USB 3.0 and 29mb/s on USB 2.0. That’s a 1GB of data transferred in under 13 seconds, which is simply remarkable. The truth is the vast majority of computers do not support USB 3.0, so this remarkable speed boost will go unnoticed by most, but this is sure to change in the coming months.

Design

From a design build, as its name indicates, this Lacie 500GB USB external drive is meant to withstand the odd bump here and there. Lacie deliberately pitches the drive as being able to withstand much more damage than most, with a supposed 2m drop not having any affect on the drive at all. Furthermore, an immediately noticeable feature of the Lacie Rugged is the orange rubber buffer around it, which absorbs some of the shock of high drops, while also reducing the effects of long-term wear and tear.

As with anything that’s built to withstand shock, tear, and even bullets, we ill-advise actually putting the Lacie Rugged 500GB USB 3.0 drive through its paces just to see how it holds up. We did, however, accidentally drop the Lacie drive and were pleasantly surprised to find it did, as is true to its advertising, keep humming along.

Other considerations

Noise levels on this 500GB USB external drive were good, with the drive’s humming going unnoticed unless you listened for it. The drive never heated up beyond lukewarm even after hours of use, and performance degradation as you approach maximum capacity is unnoticeable.

The Lacie Rugged 500GB USB 3.0 drive is well worth it if spacious capacity, fast transfer speeds and the ability to withstand a rough and tumble life cycle are what you’re looking for in a USB external drive. Sure, it’s more expensive than other drives of similar capacity, but you’re paying for design quality and features other comparable drives simply do not have.