ADATA DashDrive HV620 2.5″ 1TB External Hard Drive Review

Introduction

Generally speaking when we talk about external hard drives, there is not as much to talk about these days compared to a few years ago when they were all the rage. Flash storage has been getting more and more popular with many users, simply due to the fact that it is more compact, offers faster transfer speeds and more recently they are starting to offer higher capacities. They do have a slight downside however and this is the relative cost. On the lower end of the scale, any flash drive up to around 16GB in capacity is easy to get hold of – almost to the point where people are literally giving them away. When we start to move up the scale to drives that offer 32GB and above, the performance of the drive also starts to go up and in turn so does the cost.

With the average size of files quickly growing and the need to carry more and more data around with us also growing, flash storage quickly becomes an expensive solution. This is where the good ol’ trusty hard drive comes back in to place. With the price of hard drives coming down to almost rock bottom prices and to a point where they are inexpensive option for a number of people, we find these legacy storage options holding on to a strong position in the market due to their cheaper cost for a higher capacity. Naturally we don’t expect these legacy drives to offer the same blazing fast speeds that flash storage has to offer, but instead the amount of data that they hold is the desirable feature.

Until a few months ago, getting anything more than 1TB into a 2.5″ drive as not though of and consequently you had to look at a 3.5″ drive – but these are not exactly ‘portable’ when you consider their physical size, weight and the fact you also need an AC power adaptor as well. Thankfully, the challenge of cramming 2TB of storage into a 2.5″ format has been overcome and now we find many vendors offering up models with 2TB capacity. ADATA is just one of these companies and their portable drive comes under the DashDrive line of products.

ADATA recently introduced the HV620 into the market, with capacities ranging from 500GB through 1TB and on to 2TB, but storage space is not all that these drives have to offer. When we took a look at the HE720 around a year ago, one of its biggest shouting points was its scratch resistant metal shell. The HV620 offers up the same scratch resistant property, however it is this time on a plastic case. Anyone that owns a plastic product with a glossy finish will know how easy it is to leave a fine scratch in its surface, but ADATA have taken care of this with a small lip around the perimeter of the drive that helps to prevent any marks appearing.