Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2TB Portable HDD Review

To test Seagate’s Backup Plus Slim for its performance capabilities, I relied on both HD Tune Pro 5 and some real-world transfers. All testing was conducted on TG’s GPU test bench, which offers top-end hardware to rid all bottlenecks – an exception is that the 32GB of RAM is replaced with 2GB, to negate the effects of caching on the results.

The source files for the real-world transfers are stored on the OS drive, which is a Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD. The test sizes are based on bytes, so 4GB = ~4 billion bytes. Each 4GB in the folder tests involves roughly 5,000 files.

With that said, the results:

In the intro, I mentioned that performance could be a problem with this drive, given the fact that there isn’t a lot of room for high-performance components – but these test results prove the opposite. The incredible areal density that’s made possible thanks to what I’d presume are 1TB platters makes itself realized here. Even the 16GB folder test, which involves 19,200 files, transferred over at 67MB/s.

After seeing the kind of performance the drive could deliver, I decided to give it an even larger test to endure; the transfer of a 64GB file (an archive of 1080p game video):

What more needs to be said?

Final Thoughts

When Seagate contacted me a couple of weeks ago to say that a Backup Plus Slim was on its way, I was a little confused. After investigating, I discovered that the drive had been launched in the late fall. So what, then, would cause the company to suddenly want us to talk about it?

The biggest reason, I’m going to have to say, is “pricing”. When the Slim first launched, it retailed for $180. Today, it can be found for $120 and under – Amazon lists the black model for $103 as of the time of writing. It could also be that Seagate wanted to fine-tune its backup software further, hence the reason I had to download the installer over – but it’s hard to say.

What’s not hard to say is that this is a fantastic drive. The fact that 2TB can be had for about $100 in a form-factor with a mere half-inch thickness is, to me, incredible. With its feature-rich, easy-to-use software (which I still think needs Dropbox/Drive/etc support), the fantastic value of the product somehow manages to further increase. The only thing that I think could make the entire package better is if it included a little bag to store the drive in, like WD’s My Passport Slim does.

Without question, an Editor’s Choice is deserved here.

Pros

• 2TB in a super-small form-factor for just over $100.
• Fantastic performance; on par with desktop drives.
• Backup software looks good, is easy-to-use, and has some great features.

Cons

• None. 

Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2TB