G-Technology G-DRIVE ev ATC review: sturdy drive for clumsy professionals
By Jim Bask
Owning a portable hard drive is risky business. Besides absent-mindedly leaving it somewhere, there’s always the chance of dropping the device and breaking it. G-Technology seems to have solved the latter problem with its G-DRIVE ev ATC rugged drive.
The external enclosure is where the meat of the product lies. It’s created out of a combination of plastic and rubber which is represented in its blue and black design; this is where the durability comes from. It covers the inner drive by means of a hinged design and secured with a flimsy looking clasp. Through all of our tests, it didn’t budge at all so it only looks aesthetically weak. Attached to the rugged casing is a USB 3.0 male plug, which includes a protective cap. Both cable and cap fit into the side of the drive for safe keeping.
At the heart of the G-DRIVE ev ATC is a 7200rpm 2.5-inch SATA 3 hard drive with a 1TB capacity. When plugged into a PC via USB 3.0, the G-DRIVE transferred at an average rate of 85MB/s with several large files. The speed dip with smaller ones, which is to be expected. This happened with both the external USB connection and the internal, which means neither of the enclosures is a bottleneck for data transfer.
With a retail price of R3999 (US$179.95), the G-DRIVE ev ATC isn’t much to look at. When first handling the product it will feel somewhat cheap and plasticky, though you’ll soon realise how strong it is. [Click Here to Continue to the Full Article]