CES 2016: Seagate Brings Top Capacity, Sleek Portability, Fastest-Ever Speeds
At the Consumer Electronics Show today, Seagate unveiled new external storage products that deliver industry-leading capacity, thin and light portability and cutting-edge industrial design.
Here’s what’s new:
Backup Plus Ultra Slim: Thin Profile, Big Capacity
This latest addition to Seagate’s Backup Plus family definitely lives up to its name; it’s just a shade thicker than an iPhone 6 and doesn’t skimp on storage space. Backup Plus Ultra Slim is the world’s thinnest 2TB mobile hard drive—it’s more than 50 percent thinner than competing 2TB external drives.
Under its hood is Seagate’s 7mm Ultra Mobile HDD. With its enclosure, the Backup Plus Ultra Slim officially measures 9.6mm thick. The drive gets its slim profile and roomy capacity thanks to shingled-magnetic recording (SMR) technology, in which tracks on a platter are layered on top of each other to increase areal density. The drive can store more than 500,000 songs, or 240 hours of HD video.
The new Backup Plus Ultra Slim also sports a unique textured design, and comes in gold and platinum colors. The Backup Plus Ultra Slim will be available later this quarter from Amazon and Seagate.com.
LaCie Porsche Design: Pure Form, Refined Function
LaCie, Seagate’s premium storage brand, is showcasing several new drives in its Porsche Design family, which include the next-generation USB-C connector, best-in-class storage capacity and a sleek design that looks great paired with a MacBook.
The Porsche Design Mobile drive spans capacities of 1, 2 and 4TB—the largest capacity available for a mobile drive. The 1 and 2TB models also utilize Seagate’s Ultra Mobile HDD within its enclosure, but is a tad thicker at about 10mm due to its fully aluminum design.
USB-C is a new interface that will help computer manufacturers create thinner and lighter laptops and tablets. It also allows easier connectivity with compatible devices —there’s no wrong way to insert it because the connector is reversible. Seagate also includes a cable with USB-C on one end and a standard USB 3.0 connection on the other, making the drive compatible with the majority of today’s Macs and PCs.
The Porsche Design Desktop drive also features a USB-C connector for the latest-generation computers, along with capacity options of 4, 5 and a massive 8TB. And a new power-delivery feature means the drive provides its own power source; with USB-C, power can be passed on from the drive to the laptop to charge the laptop battery when accessing the drive at the same time. That’s a cool feature because with the new Apple MacBook, there’s only one connector on the computer, so you have to choose if you want to connect an external drive or use that single port to charge your laptop.
“Just plug the drive into a wall outlet and use it to store and backup files and charge your laptop at the same time—with just one cable,” says Clement Barberis, LaCie product manager. “We’ve made lots of improvements with our new Porsche Design drives, all aimed at delivering the best possible user experience.”
LaCie Chromé: Elevated Design, Soaring Speed
No CES is complete without an “extreme design” storage product from LaCie. Last year, there was Mirror, a 1TB external drive covered in mirrored glass, for example. This year, LaCie introduces Chromé—the fastest USB external drive to date.
Chromé delivers speeds of up to 940MB per second. The 1TB drive uses a pair of M.2 SATA SSDs and a USB 3.1 Gen 2 technology with a USB-C connector for blazing performance. Chromé has an all-aluminum enclosure and a magnetized display stand that its industrial designer, Neil Poulton, says was inspired by the work of noted Romanian sculptor Constantin Brâncusi. Vents at the back of the drive also help with heat dissipation.
“This is a drive that’s as functional as it is beautiful,” Barberis says. “Consumers have never seen this kind of performance before in a USB drive. With Chromé, we’re showing the full capabilities of the USB interface.”
The three products Seagate is launching at CES this week represent the “breadth of offerings from our consumer team,” adds Jeff Fochtman, senior director, global marketing. “From mainstream to extreme, there’s something for everyone.”
