When comparing Solo G3 vs Seagate Backup Plus Portable, 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 Solo G3 is ranked 3rd. 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
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Pros
Pro Waterproof
The Solo G3 can withstand submersion in water 10 feet deep for 3 days. It might not survive a prolonged flood, but it is extremely resilient to water.
Pro Fireproof
The Solo G3 is rated fireproof at temperatures up to 1550 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes. The average house fire temperature is 1100 Fahrenheit, and lasts about 30 minutes. This means that the Solo G3 will be able to survive the average house fire fairly easily.
Pro Fast read/write speeds
Using USB 3.0 you can expect 109MBps write speeds and 111MBps read speeds. If you only use USB 2.0 though, those speeds will drop to 16MBps for write and 32MBps for read.
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.
Cons
Con No redundancy built-in
There is just one drive inside, meaning that in the unlikely event of hard drive failure, all of your data will be lost. Some other hard drive protect against this by using RAID configurations.
Con Massive
5.0x7.1x11 inches is huge for a hard drive, and it weighs 15 pounds. It is not portable at all.
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).