Seagate is always expanding their range of external hard drives in the market. Previously, we have taken a look at the rather large Seagate Backup Plus Hub 4TB. This time around, we will be reviewing the Seagate Backup Plus Portable 4TB.
Like its name suggests, the Seagate Backup Plus Portable 4TB is meant to be compact enough to be carried anywhere without any hassle. But how will Seagate’s latest large capacity portable drive perform? Let’s find out.
Unboxing
Since the Seagate Backup Plus Portable 4TB was designed to travel everywhere, the drive comes with a minimal amount of accessories to reduce the weight. Aside from the drive itself, customers will receive a USB 3.1 Gen1 Micro B to Type-A cable and a bit of documentation. The only thing missing is a USB Type-C cable or at least an adapter to allow full compatibility across all devices.
Included in the drive’s documentation are its Quick Start Guide, a free one-year plan for Mylio, as well as a two-month membership to the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan.
Up close with the Seagate Backup Plus Portable 4TB
The Seagate Backup Plus Portable 4TB is available in several colors including Light Blue, Silver, Black, and in our case, Red. The front and top portion of the drive is made out of anodized aluminum. Its sides are made out of plastic and has been painted in white (depending on the variant) to give off a more premium feel.
As is standard in most modern portable drives, the Backup Plus Portable comes with a USB 3.1 Gen1 Micro B port. Although we would have preferred a USB Type-C connection, the Micro B port on the drive does a decent job connecting the drive to your device. The Micro B connection also allows MicroUSB cables to be used in case of emergencies.
As you’ve probably noticed, the Backup Plus Portable is a rather thick for an external drive measuring at just around 2cm. This is due to the drive being used by Seagate. Inside the enclosure is a Seagate BarraCuda Mobile HDD (ST4000DM004-2CV104). Due to its 4TB capacity, more platters needed to be placed, which means the drive will be a bit thicker to carry more data.
Software
As we’ve mentioned in our review of the Seagate Backup Plus Hub 4TB, it seems that Seagate is sacking their Dashboard software for a new solution. With the Seagate Backup Plus Portable 4TB, the brand is now using the new Seagate Toolkit.
While not as comprehensive as Dashboard, the Seagate Toolkit still offers the most important features such as scheduled backups, file restore, and synchronizing files from the host device to the drive.
Performance and Benchmarks
Out of the box, the drive is automatically formatted to exFAT. Since we are using a Windows-based device for our testing, we formatted the drive to NTFS. When using a Mac, it would be smarter to format the drive to AFPS (or HFS+ for older versions).
If you’re sharing files across systems, then keeping it to exFAT would be optimal or you can also use Seagate’s Paragon Software to access the drive in Apple-based devices.
To see how the drive performs in Sequential and Random Read and Writes, we plugged it to a USB 3.1 Gen1 compatible Windows PC and ran a couple of benchmarks.
CrystalDiskMark 6.0.1
“CrystalDiskMark is designed to quickly test the performance of your hard drives. Currently, the program allows to measure sequential and random read/write speeds.”
ATTO Disk Benchmark
“The ATTO Disk Benchmark performance measurement tool is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Use ATTO Disk Benchmark to test any manufacturers RAID controllers, storage controllers, host bus adapters (HBAs), hard drives, and SSD drives.”
While not as fast as its larger cousin, the Backup Plus Portable was able to pump out decent numbers. The drive was even able to reach the 130MB/s mark in both Sequential Reads and Writes.
Conclusion
Priced at USD 110 via Amazon or around PhP 8,000 in the Philippines, the Seagate Backup Plus Portable 4TB offers a lot in terms of its price. Aside from getting a rather large 4TB external storage, you are also getting a ton of cloud storage.
The only complaint we have about the drive is its software. The Seagate Dashboard offers a lot more functionality (when it works) compared to the Seagate Toolkit.
The free Mylio plan that is bundled with the drive is a USD 50 per year payment. Meanwhile, the free 2-month Adobe Creative Cloud is also a USD 20 investment. These cloud services are especially helpful for creators since they usually horde all the photos they can.
All in all, the Seagate Backup Plus Portable 4TB offers a lot for the money. With almost a complete package for a backup drive, we’re giving the drive our 100% Satisfying External Drive award.
If you’re looking for a massive pool of storage to take with you on-the-go, then the Seagate Backup Plus Portable 4TB is a drive to highly consider.
