Transcend StoreJet 25D3 500 GB

Like the great majority of hard drive manufacturers, Transcend is throwing itself into the battle for USB 3.0 and is using this 500 GB StoreJet 25D3 as its battering ram.

Specifications

A good point, it is also sold in a 640 GB version which gives a bit of extra memory to stock voluminous files such as films or photos... or both.
The cable is a nice length, 90 cm. These are pretty much the only stand-out features for us to mention on the StoreJet 25D3. For the rest, the casing is rather banal, austere even.
The drive inside is a Samsung Spinpoint M7 (HM500JI) which runs at 5400 rpm and has 8 MB of cache; minimal spec for a 2.5 inch format drive.

Performance

And performance levels are not up there with the best, the LaCie Rugged eSATA and Rugged USB 3.0 for example. Depending on the tests it has a lag of 15 to 18% on these other drives.
Reading and writing large files, you get speeds of around 90 MB/s, when the Rugged USB 3.0 gives 110 MB/s:
 

 

Things aren't any better with average sized 512 KB files: 50 MB/s compared to 61 to 66 MB/s for the LaCie hard drive.

Access times are however similar:
 

When we put the raw speeds together with access times, we weren't surprised to get a PCMark Vantage index of 3230. This puts the Transcend StoreJet 25D3 at the bottom of the class for USB 3.0 hard drive.
 

It does nevertheless greatly outclass USB 2.0 drives and could be a good choice as long as you can find it at a lower price than the LaCie Rugged USB 3.0.

Portability

The StoreJet makes up for lack of performance with portability. It isn't as small as the Rikiki but at 192 cm3 and 190g, it is a good deal smaller than the Rugged USB 3.0. It will also be less resistant to knocks as it doesn't have the same rubber protection.