When comparing Seagate Backup Plus Portable vs Seagate Backup Plus Slim, the Slant community recommends Seagate Backup Plus Slim for most people. In the question“What are the best external hard drives?” Seagate Backup Plus Slim is ranked 1st while Seagate Backup Plus Portable is ranked 2nd. The most important reason people chose Seagate Backup Plus Slim is:
The Backup Plus Slim 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.
Specs
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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 Comes with a very helpful and useful software dashboard that lets you instantly backup all your data and files
The Backup Plus Slim 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 reliable
One of the most important things to keep in mind when picking a hard drive, or any kind of storage hardware for that matter is reliability. The Seagate Backup Plus Slim recorded 587 failure reports out of 8,948 user reviews, giving the Slim a 6.5 percent reported failure rate. This is quite good for a portable hard drive since 10 percent failure rate is the threshold for a reliable hard drive.
Pro Very portable
The Seagate Backup Slim, true to its name is one of the slimmest and most portable hard drives on the market. It's less than half an inch thick (0.48inch), it weighs just 5.6 ounces, and it's 4.47 inches long and 2.99 inches wide which makes it easy to just throw into a bag pocket when you are on the go.
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 The case can take some physical abuse without being damaged
The Seagate Backup Plus Slim has a hard and sturdy case that does not flex or creak under pressure. It's also durable to scratches from keys or other hard objects.
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 The USB port is prone to breaking if you are not careful
The USB port wobbles up and down when you apply even a little bit of pressure to the USB cable and for this reason you must make sure to leave the hard drive unplugged when transporting it since it's quite easy to break the port accidentally.
Con You need to use an encryption software to encrypt your files
Does not have hardware encryption built-in. You'll have to use an encryption software if you want to encrypt the files you have stored in this hard drive.