Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch 1TB Review

While certainly not the fastest external USB bus powered storage solution available the Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch is not meant to be. Instead it is meant to provide a good mix of performance, capacity, size, and above all else price. In this laudable goal the new Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch 1TB is everything you could ask for in a spindle and platter based device.

At only 11.7mm thick and a less than a 115mm long, the Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch 1TB is nearly as small as many 2.5inch NAND based devices and yet with 1 TB of capacity has relatively cavernous capacity compared to NAND. Conversely, while it may not be as fast as the large 4TB USB powered options out there, it does come close enough. Close enough that people who care about a few extra seconds in transfer times should really be looking more at NAND based solutions – or at the very least non-USB bus powered external storage solutions. Best of all, with an asking price that is literally offset entirely by the included promotional software it really is hard to argue with its overall value. Of course, the 1TB will not be such an amazing value if the included software (especially the Mylio 1 year plan) is of no interest to you; however with an asking price of only $70 it is inexpensive enough to easily justify even if you just want a cheap drive to transport files from point A to B.

All this was not unexpected. The Seagate Backup Plus variants have always been very good value options. Options which offer an excellent blend of abilities with an overall value that has always been hard to beat. The one area that these models always fell down on was in the aesthetics department. Whether it was the original flat colored plastic, or the later ‘golf ball’ styling… they always looked like what they were: value orientated models. Put another way they were competent looking, but were the equivalent of a ‘Beige Box’ PC case. Good enough, competent enough, but nothing special when compared to their LaCie competition. The new Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch is still not as aesthetically pleasing as LaCie models, but it has made great strides in this department. Sure the ‘woven textile’ enclosure cannot hold a candle to the graceful lines of the LaCie options, but it does look a lot better than ever before. It will garner second glances and have people ask what it is – usually followed by some variant on ‘Cool! I did not know Seagate did that’.

With all that said the Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch is not perfect. Seagate still relies too much on plastic, and has done little to ensure the drive can survive even minor drops. This has always been the weak link of their inexpensive external storage lines. However, with such a low real-world asking price… it is not all that surprising. This class of devices are meant to last a few years’ worth of moderate abuse and then be replaced. They are not meant to be an investment. As such it may not be perfect, but it is a lot better overall than what most other companies are offering in this price range these days. Put another way the Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch series is the best implementation on the Slim philosophy that Seagate has released to date. Low asking price or not, this device deserves to be on your short list… especially if you have a use for either included bonus software.