Review: Seagate Backup Portable Plus

When it comes to buying an external hard drive, most would not be too picky about their exact choices as long as it had the right amount of space, all within an allocated budget.

Although some may be brand loyal, I personally haven’t had any issues with particular brands so unless you are planning to stick with just one, maybe think outside the box. Such as considering any extra features a hard drive could include when you are buying one.

The Seagate Backup Plus Portable Drive is one of those external hard drives, which have additional features which many may find useful.

It comes with a pre­loaded software and along with backing up your computer, it also has the ability to take photos from Facebook and Flickr, which have been already uploaded.

It also has the ability to upload from the drive as well, which is also handy. The drive also comes with the Universal Storage Module, which allows you to interchange between various connections ­ the default is a USB 3.0, but if you wanted to change it to a Thunderbolt or FireWire connection for Mac, you can do so for an extra cost.

The drive itself is also very lightweight and measures in at around 7.5cm x 12.5cm, feels sturdy therefore would be suitable to everyday use.

Pros:

• Included software which allows instant back up from your computer which has a simple interface dashboard
• Back Up from Facebook and Flickr, and includes uploads to those sites as well. If you have video files, you can upload to YouTube. Seagate says that will be expanded soon
• Available in various sizes ranging from 500GB to 1TB
• Reasonably priced and includes a two year warranty

Cons:

• There are differences between interfaces on both Windows and Mac, which may be annoying if you use both operating systems - e.g. Protect feature is only on Windows
• There isn’t much price difference between hard drive capacities, it might be more worthwhile to pay a bit more
• Seagate also offers a Cloud based backup system which the drive works together with, but it is a little pricey given the amount of options online
• Drawing photos from Facebook only consists of the compressed version, which Seagate says is due to it’s API

Given that there are many different brands of hard drives, the choice really comes down to capacity and price. But if you’re interested in some extra features then this could be something to consider, given the price and size.

Score: 4/5