Final Score: 88 out of 100
As we made mention in our previous external HDD storage review this corner of the marketplace is all about refinement not paradigm shifts. This market is simply too mature for massive changes to happen. With that said the LaCie Mobile Drive series is much, much improved over its predecessor. Yes. The last generation was a work of art. Yes, it was darn near bullet proof with the amount of billet aluminum LaCie used in its creation. Yes. By 2.5-inch, 5400RPM hard drive standards it was peppy. All of this is still true. However, the new refresh is better.
The most obvious improvement is the chassis. The last gen was indeed good, even great. It offered a ton of thermal mass to keep the internals cool, could shrug off levels of blunt force trauma that would out and out kill mere mortal drives. It was even drop dead gorgeous. What it was not all that good at was transferring that heat to surrounding air. Put simply it was a very pretty brick of metal. A pretty brick of aluminum that some considered to be down right funky (in a very good way) looking. This generation may not be as ‘cool’ looking but it still is drop dead gorgeous. It just is more functional looking. More importantly, thanks to the enormous amount of cooling fins baked into the new look this generation’s HDD runs noticeably cooler. Yes, that means the exterior feels warmer faster than the last generation, but the new LaCie Mobile Drive series is a series that can be used 24/7/365 without worries over baking the hard drive. That is a massive improvement. One that easily justifies the refresh all on its own.
Much like an iceberg, the new exterior is just the tip of the changes… with most hidden ‘beneath the surface’. We are of course talking about the hard disk drive LaCie has opted to pair to that new chassis. The last generation used a circa 2017(ish) BarraCuda branded drive. For its day it was rather good. Even today it still is a very decent option. It however is a bit dated. The newer Seagate Mobile HDD is better. It has better bit density, produces less heat, offers better sequential and random transfer performance. It is even a bit lower noise. Basically, it is better by all metrics. So much so we saw it outperform bigger, but older, 2.5-inch models. On its own this change, also justifies the refresh of the LaCie Mobile Drive series.
This one-two combination is indeed potent. So much so that while we will not be rushing out to replace our working ‘old’ LaCie Mobile HDD with a new one, when it does go to the big drive in the sky the new LaCie Mobile Drive will be what we replace it with. This new drive is just too good to ignore. As such, the only sticking point, that all LaCie branded models share, is the asking price. However, when you combine noticeable low-level improvements with noticeable external improvements the moderate differences in price between a premium model like the LaCie Mobile Drive series and more ‘value oriented’ models is not big enough to really worry about. This device is just that good for its class, and deservers to be on your short list. Doing otherwise will mean you pass over one of the best options going today.
The Review
LaCie Mobile Drive
When you combine noticeable low-level improvements with noticeable external improvements the moderate differences in price between a premium model like the LaCie Mobile Drive series and more ‘value oriented’ models is not big enough to really worry about. This device is just that good for its class, and deservers to be on your short list. Doing otherwise will mean you pass over one of the best options going today.
