Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Ultra-Portable

Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Ultra-Portable Drive 1.5TB

Seagate has clearly had a busy year with the launch of its GoFlex storage line. The latest entry in that line is the FreeAgent GoFlex 1.5TB portable drive, which packs half a terabyte more than the competition offers in a 2.5-inch design. The $250 drive (price as of September 23, 2010) comes with a USB 3.0 connector, too, which means that you don't have to foot the $30 bill for a cable (as you do with other models in the FreeAgent GoFlex series). Seagate achieved the drive's notable total capacity by increasing the capacity of the platters--375GB per platter, instead of 333GB per platter--and by adding a fourth platter inside the drive. The new FreeAgent GoFlex spins at 5400 rpm, which should result in a slower speed than what we saw from the 7200-rpm, 500GB FreeAgent GoFlex Pro we've tested previously over USB 3.0. I say "should" for a reason: In PCWorld Labs tests, the 1.5TB drive yielded mixed results--some strong, one not quite so. The 1.5TB drive virtually tied, or bested, the Pro model in four of our six tests. For example, it required 59 seconds to read 2GB of files and folders, compared with 63 seconds for the Pro.