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Add to SafariWhen comparing Seagate Backup Plus Portable vs WD My Passport, the Slant community recommends Seagate Backup Plus Portable for most people. In the question“What are the best external hard drives?” Seagate Backup Plus Portable is ranked 2nd while WD My Passport is ranked 4th. The most important reason people chose Seagate Backup Plus Portable is:
Included with the purchase of this hard drive is a 2 year subscription to 200GB of Microsoft's OneDrive online storage. This adds flexibility - you can access it from any computer as long as you have an internet access and login using your Microsoft account.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Included cloud storage
Included with the purchase of this hard drive is a 2 year subscription to 200GB of Microsoft's OneDrive online storage. This adds flexibility - you can access it from any computer as long as you have an internet access and login using your Microsoft account.
Pro Has a mobile app that backs up all your data on your smartphone
Seagate has a mobile app called The Seagate Mobile Backup app available for both iOS and Android that backs up your contacts, messages, photos, and other data from your smartphone to your hard drive via Wi-Fi or your phone’s data connection to a drive that is plugged into a computer running the Dashboard software.
Pro Great performance for the price
The Backup Plus Portable has great performance for the price. According to the HD Tune benchmark, it has results of 100.6 MB/s read and 93.5 MB/s write, making it the fastest portable hard drive for this price range, especially for single-file transfers.
Pro Comes with a very helpful and useful software dashboard that lets you instantly backup all your data and files
The Backup Plus Portable comes with a very user-friendly software dashboard called the Seagate Dashboard which lets you back up your PC, mobile devices, and social media, or restore an existing backup.
Pro Very portable
At 0.54lbs, it's quite portable and easy to just throw into a bag and carry around.
Pro Relatively long warranty
The WD My Passport comes with a 3-year warranty.
Pro Large Capacity options
Models available to up to 4TB.
Pro Supports Mac and PC
Supports both NTFS and HFS+(needs formating).
Pro Has a backup software
Western Digital provides a backup application that can be downloaded from the manufacturer's site. You can use the application to create automated backups or manual on-demand backups.
Pro WD is generally more reliable than Seagate Drives
Cons
Con Not the most portable hard drive out there
Measuring 4.51 by 3.07 by 0.81 inches and weighing 8.6 ounces, this hard drive is a bit on the bulkier side. It's twice as thick and heavy as the Seagate Backup Plus Slim for example.
Con Can slide off an uneven desk
The hard drive can slide off any surfaces that aren't quite flat because of its smooth surfaces. You might want to make sure your desk is level, or use some felt pads, or put it on a surface that won't slide (for example a mouse pad).
Con Relatively slow for single-file transfers
Even though it has a 201.8MB/s write speed, according to benchmarks it's surprisingly slow with single-file transfers compared to other portable hard drives.
Con Doesn't have a Thunderbolt port
If you use a Mac or a higher end Windows unit, you may have experienced the speed of Thunderbolt external devices. Thunderbolt drives are more expensive than USB drives. Though, a similar 5400 rpm drive using a Thunderbolt connection can read 1.5x faster than USB 3. But you may not care depending on your usage. It has not hurt some users, some 80% of computer users will not find any benefit to Thunderbolt.
