LaCie Mobile Drive 5TB Portable HDD Review

I recently had a look at LaCie's Mobile Drive as the SSD version and today it is time to take a closer look at the HDD version. The LaCie Mobile Drive portable HDD offers more capacity and a lower price per TB than the SSD, but it comes in the same great-looking design. LaCie Mobile Drive While the available capacity and performance are the two main things that we are looking for in a storage drive, it doesn't need to be limited to those alone. Sometimes you also want something elegant and great looking and we surely get that with the LaCie Mobile Drive. It features the companies 30th-anniversary diamond-cut design which is both beautiful and stylish. At least if you ask me. It doesn't just look great, it's also quite durable. The diamond cut design is best visible on the corners. The beautiful finish isn't just great to look at, it also feels great to touch. A premium drive you can be proud to show off on any day. Despite the huge capacity of 5TB, you still get a very compact and portable storage drive. While it isn't the lightest drive, it certainly isn't heavy either with its 347 grammes. This is especially true when we consider the capacity we're getting. 5TB is a lot of capacity and you might not need as much. Even if that should be the case, it doesn't mean that you can't get one of these cool looking drives. There also are smaller versions available. It starts at 1TB for the silver version and 2TB for the grey one. From there it goes over a 4TB version before we get to the largest 5TB drive which is the one I'm testing today. I did give it a little away in the last paragraph, there are two colour options available. There's a Moon Silver and a Space Gray. The one I got in the office today is the Moon Silver version. Other than the colour and the previously mentioned smallest capacity option, the two don't have any other differences. Out of the Box Usage? It doesn't matter what kind of system you have, you'll be able to use the drive right out of the box. Well, at least in most cases. It will work flawlessly with both Windows and macOS systems as it is pre-formated as exFAT. Other systems such as NAS devices, smart TVs, and similar might not support it or require an additional licence for it. That said, if you want another file system on it, you can just reformat it. It doesn't matter which type of USB you have either. The drive itself has the latest Type-C interface and it also comes with a Type-C to Type-C cable included. But there's also a Type-A cable for legacy support with older systems which don't have a Type-C connector or where it's already occupied with another device. So, you can start using it right away when you unpack it. That's always a big bonus. Performance and Endurance The official specifications don't feature performance or endurnance numbers. That's often the case with external drives and not the first time I've come across that. However, we do get some numbers from the packaging. The drive promises a performance of up to 130MB/s. That's not ground breaking, but also not bad for a 2.5"-based HDD. Software and an Added Bonus The drive is loaded with the LaCie toolkit, ready to install - but it's also available for download via the official website. This will allow you to sync and backup folders from your computer and to the LaCie Mobile Drive right away. As a bonus, the company includes a 1-month membership for the Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps plan. There surely are a lot who'll never use this added bonus, but it does have a value of $79.49/€89.00. That's a lot of free value which has been added to a drive which comes at a suggested retail price of just £159.99. What Did LaCie Have to Say? "Like an airy loft or vast landscape, LaCie Mobile Drive articulates the beauty and importance of premium space. With up to 5TB of capacity, there’s room for photos, playlists, docs, and more. And with Mac®, Windows®, USB-C, and USB 3.0 compatibility, access is easy. One-click or automatic backup makes file storage smooth, and our 30th anniversary diamond-cut design has an edge like no other." You can also check out the official product page for more information. Package and Accessories LaCie's drives come in familiar boxes, and so does the Mobile Drive. The front shows the included drive in a full-colour print as well as the most important feature information. This includes the included capacity, connection options, and also the performance rating. The rear side has more details such as the connector type and compatibility. The sides are also filled with details about the drive, most of it in multiple languages. Inside the box is the drive itself, naturally, but also two connection cables. One for classic Type-A ports and one for Type-C and Thunderbolt 3 systems. The drive is fully bus-powered, so there's no need for a power supply which is a huge bonus for any portable drive. There are a couple notes included too which can help with the connection and redeming the Adobe trial. Testing & Methodology There are many ways to test a storage drive, and we have chosen to include close to every test possible. We will start with a typical benchmark analysis of the formatted drive with various village scenarios. A mechanical drive will have to move its read-heads over the surface to reach the data location, and that has a natural impact on the performance. To see the impact it might have, the drive will be tested empty as well as with 25%, 50%, and 75% space usage. For these tests, we will be using Anvil’s Storage Utilities, AS SSD Benchmark, ATTO Benchmark, and CrystalDiskMark which all give us familiar figures which we can compare to other drivers. Hardware Supermicro C7Z270-PG Intel Core i7-7700KCrucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 2400MHz (4x8GB)Toshiba OCZ VX500 512GB SSDbe quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 (1200W)Noctua NH-D15SCooler Master HAF XB EVO with Noctua NF-A14 FLX fans Software AIDA64 Storage Benchmark Anvil's Storage UtilitiesAS SSD BenchmarkATTO BenchmarkCrystalDiskMarkWindows 10 Pro AIDA64 Storage Benchmark AIDA64 is a streamlined Windows diagnostic and benchmarking software for home users with a broad range of features to assist in overclocking, hardware error diagnosis, stress testing, and sensor monitoring. The app has unique capabilities to assess the performance of the processor, system memory, and disk drives and is compatible with most Microsoft Windows operating systems. It also has a disk benchmark tool, and that is the one I’ll be using. The Random Read and Write tests measure the random performance by reading or writing variable-sized data blocks at random locations on the surface of the drive. The Random tests are a combination of both speed and access times as it moves the position before each new operation. The Access Time tests are designed to measure the data access performance by reading or writing small 0.5KB data blocks at random locations on the drive surface. Anvil's Storage Benchmark Anvil’s Storage Utilities is a complete benchmark solution used to test any writeable storage drive. It also has a drive endurance test that consistently reads and writes data to the selected medium to deliver days, months, and potentially even years of use in a shorter period. Empty Drive 75% Drive Fillage Drive Analysis With the performance analysis, we get a good view of the drive’s consistency. We want as straight a line as possible for a good result. Drive Comparison For the drive comparison, we will use the performance figures from empty drives here. AS SSD Storage Benchmark The AS SSD software determines the performance of Solid State Drives (SSD). The tool contains five synthetic and three practice tests. The synthetic tests determine the sequential and random read and write performance of the SSD, and they aren’t using the operating system cache. The copy tests are cached and as such not viable results at this time. Empty Drive 75% Drive Fillage Drive Analysis With the performance analysis, we get a good view of the drive’s consistency. We want as straight a line as possible for a good result. Drive Comparison For the drive comparison, we will use the performance figures from empty drives here. ATTO Disk Benchmark The ATTO Disk Benchmark performance measurement tool is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Measure your storage systems performance with various transfer sizes and test lengths for reads and writes. Several options are available to customise your performance measurement including queue depth, overlapped I/O and even a comparison mode with the option to run continuously. Empty Drive 75% Drive Fillage Drive Analysis With the performance analysis, we get a good view of the drive’s consistency. We want as straight a line as possible for a good result. Drive Comparison For the drive comparison, we will use the performance figures from empty drives here. CrystalDiskMark CrystalDiskMark is a small HDD and SSD benchmark utility that allows you to measure a drive’s sequential and random performance. Empty Drive 75% Drive Fillage Drive Analysis With the performance analysis, we get a good view of the drive’s consistency. We want as straight a line as possible for a good result. Drive Comparison For the drive comparison, we will use the performance figures from empty drives here. Pricing and Final Thoughts Long gone are the times where you had to pay several hundreds for a drive such as the LaCie Mobile Drive. Despite the large 5TB capacity, it will only set you back £148.70 and $159.94 via Amazon. That's a bargain if you ask me. Final Thoughts While a mechanical drive, especially not a 2.5-inch based one, won't break any speed barriers, the LaCie Mobile Drive did good in our tests. It delivers the speed it promises and what you expect from a drive of this caliber and type. While you get a drive with a large capacity and portability, you also get a great looking drive which will match your silver or grey MacBook - but it'll also look great when connected to other systems. Speaking of connections, you get a drive with the latest in that regard. The LaCie Mobile Drive features a Type-C port and cable for compatibility with the latest USB and Thunderbolt standards. Not to worry if you don't have that yet as it also comes with a Type-A cable for backwards compatibility. A drive isn't all you're getting when you purchase a LaCie Mobile Drive, you also get some great software. To start with, there is LaCie's toolbox which will help with your regular backups and similar tasks. But that's not all. LaCie also includes a 1-month trial for Adobe's Creative Cloud All Apps Plan. Should I Purchase One? The Mobile Drive might cost a little more than the Backup Plus drive, for example, but it also looks better. Whether that's an argument for or against will have to be up to you personally. I quite like the Mobile Drive design and wouldn't mind paying a little extra for it. Pros Up to 5TB capacityUSB Type-C interface for compatibility with the latest devicesMatches the MacBook Silver and Grey coloursWorks with Windows and MacOS out of the box (exFAT) Cons Costs a little more than same-capacity drives of lesser design "LaCie's Mobile Drive is a beautiful portable HDD with plenty of capacity for even the most demanding users." LaCie Mobile Drive 5TB Portable HDD Review Thank you, LaCie, for providing us with this sample.