WD My Passport Ultra 1TB Portable Hard Drive Review

When we took a look at WD’s My Passport last summer, we were left impressed for a couple of reasons. For starters, it performed well, and who wouldn’t love 2TB in such a small form-factor? Then there was the robust (but clunky) backup software, a durable, good-looking design, and for those who want to take advantage of it, hardware encryption.

This summer, WD followed-up to that series with “Ultra”, which overall looks pretty similar but does have a couple of notable differences. At the forefront, cloud backups are here, and as long as Dropbox is your solution of choice, WD has got you covered. Second, the Pro version of SmartWare is included, allowing you to backup with more than just WD drives. It might be a small touch, but an included soft pouch rounds out the deal, and overall, it’s a good addition.

WD’s My Passport Ultra drives come in black, red, silver and blue. I’ll let you take a guess as to the one we’re dealing with.

The Ultra’s densities range from 500GB to 2TB, with the physical size being based on that. The 1TB model, which we’re looking at here, is 0.61″ thick (and 154 grams), while the 2TB, just like the My Passport in the shot below, is 0.82″ thick (and 227 grams).

The top of the Ultra might look textured, but it’s as smooth as can be. The same can be said for the bottom, though it’s not glossy as the top is. No surprise, this is a USB 3.0 device (backwards compatible with USB 2.0), as you can see by the connector in the shot below.

Once plugged into your PC, you’ll have 931GB in total to make use of. Be careful not to format the drive too hastily, however, as WD has its software bundle waiting for you inside. You’re free to format the drive to any file system you like, but the encryption software is only designed to work with Windows and OS X.

Remember when 1TB seemed enormous?

It happened quick, but we’ve exhausted the feature’s list, so without wasting time, let’s dive into a look at the software.