Verbatim is a brand that's better known for producing writable CDs and DVDs has now launched a portable external hard drive.  It's available in a series of bright colours and is finished in matte plastic.  On the inside, there's a 2.5'' hard drive that can hold 500 GB.

We might as well tell you straight away that we weren't really much sold on the exterior of this product.  Without applying much pressure we almost broke the case, so it's hardly very likely that it would survive much of a fall.  Looking at the connectivity that's on offer, there's nothing but a USB 2.0 port where we would have preferred to see eSATA.  The cable that's supplied is just a single USB, while most manufacturers now supply a double.  One cable will generally suffice, but some laptops need to use the double USB connection, sending data over one cable and power over another.

Speeds

Iomega eGo FW400/USB 250 GB 2.5'' Portable Hard Drive USB 2.0 500 GB

It's not the fastest hard drive, but it is pretty average.  To copy 1 GB of files onto this drive, you'll to wait around 46 seconds; going in the other direction takes 32 seconds.