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.