In computing today, compact is the key word and that certainly goes for everything ‘cept maybe the enthusiast segment but everything else seems to be going down the path of size reduction. And by that we mean in physical size, and as for storage as their physical sizes go down, their capacities must go up in order to stay competitive. We’ve had numerous external hard drives pass by here in Back2Gaming with most 2.5″ just managing to be able to fit in the pocket but that changes today with ADATA’s latest addition to their product port folio: the DashDrive Elite HE720. Bragging an 8.9mm thickness, this hard drive is the claimed to be the thinnest in the market today. But does that small frame belie something more powerful? Let’s find out and let’s make this showy!
We’re checking out some ADATA products this week and back to back with the S102 USB3.0 flash drive is its much big brother, the HE720 Dash Drive Elite. As the latest addition to ADATA’s growing port folio of storage solutions, the HE720 steps out of the usual flash-based solutions that ADATA offers and features a mechanical drive. As such, it is stepping in a market saturated by a lot of competition from other manufacturers but ADATA’s main selling point from the DashDrive Elite HE720 is its slim and metal body, featuring an 8.99mm thickness which ADATA claims to be the slimmest in the world. Let’s check out some specs and images before we get to some action.
SPECIFICATIONS
| Capacity | 500GB |
| Color | Titanium |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 117 x 79 x 8.9mm (4.6 x 3.1 x 0.4in) |
| Weight | 164g (0.4 lb) |
| Interface (USB) | SuperSpeed USB 3.0 (backward compatible with USB 2.0) |
| Interface (HDD) | 2.5″ SATA II |
| System requirements | Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 / Mac OS X 10.6 or later / Linux Kernel 2.6 or later |
| Temperature | Operating 5ºC~50ºC; Storage -40ºC~60ºC |
| Accessories | USB 3.0 cable; Quick Start Guide |
| Texture | Stainless steel metal brushed surface, plus mirror-like polish |
| Warranty | 3 years(Where differences may exist, this warranty term supersedes information shown elsewhere.) |
CLOSER LOOK
[one_fourth last=”no”][singlepic id=11401 w=120 h=120 float=center][/one_fourth][one_fourth last=”no”][singlepic id=11402 w=120 h=120 float=center][/one_fourth][one_fourth last=”no”][singlepic id=11403 w=120 h=120 float=center][/one_fourth][one_fourth last=”yes”][singlepic id=11404 w=120 h=120 float=center][/one_fourth] [singlepic id=11406 w=550 h=600 float=center]Despite the grand presentation that ADATA claims the HE720 to be, the packaging isn’t so attractive. With simple styling and minimal images on the packaging, ADATA is surely reliant on the money shot on the front to attract potential customers. The package itself, once opened, includes a humble bundle of pretty much the drive itself, a USB3.0 cable and some documentation. Straight up indeed.
[one_half last=”no”][singlepic id=11407 Â w=260 h=180 float=center][/one_half][one_half last=”yes”][singlepic id=11409 w=260 h=180 float=center][/one_half] [singlepic id=11411 w=550 h=600 float=center]And here is ADATA’s thinnest drive to date. With a solid metal body, despite its slim profile it certainly is packing some weight which might turn off some people who thought this drive is more portable than it seems. It’s definitely one heavy sucker to lug around in a pocket.
Here’s the drive side by side with our contender for today, the WD My Passport for Mac. Certainly a personal favorite of mine but I ain’t that nice so I’m giving it duty today to go up against the competition from ADATA.
PERFORMANCE
Crystal DiskMark
[singlepic id=11414 w=550 h=600 float=center]Very close match with our test devices for this round. We can see the WD My Passport performs slightly better but only by a close margin. We’d love to see better figures in the smaller file tests though.
ATTO Disk Benchmark
[singlepic id=11416 w=550 h=600 float=center]Checking out file size scaling, we can see both drives hover at the same marks with the ADATA taking a slight edge in some situations. Under perfect conditions, the HE720 actually outperforms the WD My Passport.
File Copy Test
[singlepic id=11415 w=550 h=600 float=center]Here’s where everything boils down to. We’ve taken our compression test files, a collection of images, documents and other files ranging from 1KB to 50MB amounting to 3,310 files for 2.49GB. As this is mostly the workload the HE720 will most likely encounter we can see it is quite fast at just past a minute but with a lot of small files to deal with, the WD My Passport takes the but only by a few seconds.
CONCLUSION
Choosing a portable hard drive is for most people a price affair. The HE720 comes in at around 85-90$ (local price to be confirmed), but as of this writing that is a bit above any 500GB external drive around. Surely its the solid casing and thin profile that’s bumping up the cost a bit and if you’re into that sort of styling, the premium is reasonable but durability is a different matter with the likes of Silicon Power vying for that spot. Still, the HE720 holds its own.
[singlepic id=11407 w=550 h=600 float=center]Wrapping things up, the HE720 still has its market. The slim profile coupled with speedy transfers makes for one hell of a external drive and if you’re like me that loves to boast shiny and flashy stuff then this drive is for you. That is, if 500GB is fine with you otherwise you’d be looking for more storage. Even so, the ADATA DashDrive Elite HE720 manages to slim down and give the external HDD a different look and bring out very good USB3.0 speeds. We’d only love to ask ADATA to get the 1TB and higher models rolling and we’d be happier. For now, the HE720 gets our Performance award.
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