SimpleTough Features & Design

The SimpleTough portable hard drive is one of Hitachi's nigh recent additions to its SimpleTech product range. Besides our 500GB evaluation unit, the rugged drive besides comes in 250GB and 320GB capacities, with all three featuring a two.v-inch form factor and USB ii.0 interface.

It should be noted that although Hitachi lists all three HDD sizes on its website, we were unable to notice the smaller 250GB bulldoze selling anywhere. The 320GB version tin can be bought from several retails for nigh $fourscore, while the 500GB variant that we are testing volition ready yous back some $120.

The plastic crush has been given a carbon fiber look and offers a skillful corporeality of grip, but this is not what makes the drive resistant. Rather, there'southward a thick rubber wall on each side designed to absorb impacts.

The SimpleTough portable drive is meant to withstand a 10 foot drop, which is considerably higher than the 4 feet the A-Data SH93 is designed to survive. As briefly noted in our introduction it can likewise handle the pressure of a one-ton truck.

Besides being able to take a beating like a gnaw the SimpleTough is also water resistant -- which ways information technology tin resist spills and other incidents involving water, simply won't survive a swim in the pool similar the SH93 did.

Pulling autonomously the SimpleTough gave us a ameliorate understanding of what makes this a rugged production. With the rubber walls removed, we took apart the hard plastic casing and found two big rubber sleeves wrapped around a Hitachi Travelstar 5K500.B hard bulldoze. These sleeves help absorb impact and pressure level farther.

The "never-lose" foldaway USB cablevision made it like shooting fish in a barrel to commencement using our 500GB SimpleTough drive. We plugged it into our test system and just as easily were able to fold this cable abroad to take the bulldoze on the route. This is a more user friendly and practical design compared to what A-DATA used for their SH93.

The SimpleTough is besides very light, weighing in just 267 grams, while measuring a relatively big 15cm (L) x 10cm (W) x 3cm (T). Given the immovability features, the dimensions are within reason. Besides of note, Hitachi has included a comprehensive three-year warranty to back the SimpleTough portable USB 2.0 drive.