Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch 1TB Portable HDD Review

SSDs might take all the hype these days, but HDDs are still vital players in the field. Today I’m taking a look at a portable HDD that is a little bit special, the Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch with 1TB capacity. The drive is special in the sense that it comes with woven fabric on the enclosure which gives it the name Touch.

Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch

At the core, there isn’t a lot of difference between this and the other Seagate Backup Plus drives. It is a mechanical HDD with a capacity of 1TB or 2TB which connects through a USB 3.0 interface. And while neither a 2.5-Inch HDD nor USB 3.0 is the latest in standards, the two complement each other well. They’re also both relatively cheap which allows the end-user to get a lot of capacity at a low cost.

The small drive is highly portable thanks to its size of just 115 by 78mm size and 12mm height. It also weighs a mere 150 grams. While I had the black version in the office for this review, there’s also a white version. Both can also be had with included Seagate Recovery Services in some regions.

Thanks to the interface and choice of drive, you don’t need an external power supply for this drive. The whole thing is bus-powered. That is a great thing for every portable drive as it reduces both weight and the number of items you need to carry.

A Different Kind of Design

While the drive dimensions are the same, the exterior still unique as far as I know. The Backup Plus Ultra Touch sports a chic, woven fabric enclosure. This is also where it gets its name from as it is extremely nice to touch.

The rest is the same as any other drive in the series. A nice portable HDD which is compatible with standard USB 3.0 Type-A as well as modern Type-C ports. It is compatible with Windows and Mac, it supports AES-256 bit encryption, and comes with great software bonuses.

Software Bonus

Seagate offers its own piece of software which is compatible with all their portable drives. It allows for customised backup and folder mirroring and thereby easy backups. Just drop files into the designated folder for automatic file synchronisation, for example. And that will work well with both Windows and Mac without the need to reformat as it comes preformatted in the exFAT format.

On top of the free in-house Seagate software, you get a really nice bonus with this drive. There is a 1-year Mylio Create plan as well as a 2-month Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan included.

Mylio is a library app for photos, videos, and documents and the Seagate-included plan is worth $50. It allows for the use on up to 4 computers (and unlimited iOS and Android devices) with 50 thousand photos and raw image editing.

The Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan includes Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, Photoshop Fix, and Photoshop Express. Everything you need to edit your photos quickly and professionally.

Feature Highlights

• Tactile, textile industrial design fits in with modern lifestyle elements.
• Type-C compatibility for the latest laptops. Also compatible with USB 3.0 and USB 2.0.
• Secure private data with advanced password protection and 256-AES hardware encryption — the same standard used by the U.S. government and global intelligence agencies.
• Designate key folders to synchronise files across multiple devices.
• Works with PCs and Mac right out of the box — no driver installation or reformatting needed.
• 1-year Mylio Create plan.
• 2-month Adobe Creative Cloud Photography membership.

What Does Seagate Have to Say?

“Sporting a chic, woven fabric enclosure, Seagate® Backup Plus Ultra
Touch portable hard drive is aimed at making file protection as simple as
possible. This HDD, featuring password protection with Seagate
Secure™ AES-256 encryption, is compatible across USB-C and USB 3.0
for both Windows and Mac® laptops and even offers customisable
backup options to suit a variety of needs and lifestyles. Welcome to the Backup Plus way of life..”

You can check out all full details on the official product page.