ADATA launches fast, affordable portable drive

While the concept of ‘The Cloud' is great, we often need to move big data around quickly – or we need access when the 3G/WiFi is dire. In those cases, anyone who carries their important data on a slimline, portable drive is gonna have a superior grin on their face. In a highly competitive market, how much are you prepared to pay for that kind of facility?  KitGuru fills its top pocket.

KitGuru was at a meeting last week.

We brought along our trust iPad with 3G and as soon as we put it down on the pub's outdoor table – we were ready to go.

One of the people we were meeting brought along the kind of flight case that you might use for a short holiday and proceeded to unpack a full size (17″) laptop and look around for anywhere they could plug an external hard drive into.

The 3rd person had a relatively slimline laptop and a ‘passport' type USB 3 drive which draws its power from the computer.

While KitGuru was able to exude a certain amount of smugness at how little we'd brought to the table and commiserated with the poor chap who had a bag of bricks, the idea of an Ultrabook with slimline 1TB external is actually quite cool. It offers a serious amount of storage and processing in a neat/nimble bag that you can throw casually over the shoulder.

It is this 3rd chap – lightweight tech man – that ADATA is aiming the HV620 external drive at.

It comes in 500GB and 1TB flavours with UK pricing expected to be around £49 for the smaller drive and £65 for the larger, so pricing is competitive with the likes of WD etc.

Apart from the USB 3 connectivity and no need for a power cable, ADATA is selling this drive on 3 key features:-

1. Scratch Prevention Design
   The edge of the device has a slight lip all around, which prevents the surface from scratching
2. Sleek and Glossy
   Which will appeal to us geeks, apparently
3. LED Transfer Indicator
   So you know when a data transfer is in progress and don't remove the drive at the wrong moment

Historically, ADATA is more famous for supplying memory to other companies. They are rumoured to have made almost all of the Sony memory modules (DUOs etc) and many of the world's Asus products are also running on ADATA memory.
The company appears to be trying to win the hearts & minds in the channel for 2013/14 – using products like the HV620 – let's see how that goes.

.
KitGuru says: If ADATA manages to land products in UK stores at this kind of price, then they can expect a nice little sales kick. The danger will be if the price is too close to WD and other competitors with a more established name/channel.

Comment below, in the KitGuru forums or join us online over at Facebook.

Become a Patron!