Travel accessories: 1 TB in your back pocket
Slim design makes it possible to fit the Hitachi MX3 in your back pocket.
TEST: Hitachi Touro Mobile MX3 review. Every now and then when on the move you’ll feel the need for more digital storage. Photos, video clips and documents need space, especially if you’re perhaps editing photos and films out in the field. For security reasons, too, more space come handy – you might want to store your valuable collection of photos on the separate discs, so if one gets stuck in customs you’ll still have the other in your carry-on luggage.
Now, basically, this is the reason to buy a portable harddrive. There are dozens of those on the market. The Traveling Reporter has tested one of them, the Hitachi Touro Mobile MX3 1 TB harddrive, which, as its name suggests, can store 1 TB (Terrabyte) of data.
→ RELATED Compare prices and competitors — Pricerunner
That’s a lot. Using a Mac Air, I decided to use the portable drive make a full backup on the computer’s own harddrive, and ended up with lots of space left for other things.
The MX3 box.
The Hitachi MX3 is a very small (fits easily in your inside pocket) and has no buttons, thus very easy to use. It comes with a USB cable with which you connect it to your computer. The portable harddrive itself has no internal battery, instead it runs on electricity provided by the computer. Also, there are no bluetooth or other wireless connections, obviously since the drive needs a cable connected to run at all.
There are a few positive things with the cable solution. Firstly, the thing gets lighter in weight and smaller without batteries. Secondly, the USB cable connection is very fast, so if you plan to use the portable drive mainly for backup purposes, you’ll be able to finish the job in a few minutes, as opposed to using virtual harddrives which recuire a wifi connection and can often be slow.
The downside with the Hitachi solution is that the USB cable is unique to this device, so if you lose the cable for some reason you’re pretty much screwed and will have to go hunting for a replacement cable exactly the same.
The price for this device on the market is about US$80 or €60. It’s not a lot for so much storage space, so if you’re looking for a simple storage solution for travel purposes, we can really recommend the Hitachi.
The Hitachi Touro 1 TB mobile harddrive.
Competitors
→ Also check out these external harddrives:
• Western Digital My Passport Essential 1TB
• Western Digital Elements Desktop 2TB
• Seagate Expansion Portable Drive USB 2.0 500GB
• Seagate Backup Plus Desktop 3TB
[schema type=”review” url=”http://travelingreporter.com/test-mobile-1tb-travel-harddrive/” name=”Hitachi Touro Mobile MX3 1 TB” description=”Review of the Hitachi Touro Mobile MX3 1 TB, a portable harddrive with one TB (terrabyte) storage, good for when traveling.” rev_name=”Hitachi Touro Mobile MX3 1 TB” rev_body=”Lightweight, small, fits in your pocket, fast USB connection, no batteries needed, easy to use.” author=”Erik Bergin” pubdate=”2011-12-17″ user_review=”4″ min_review=”1″ max_review=”5″ ]
