Performance: 35 out of 40
The Armor A66 is not a speed demon. Instead, it is best described as typical for its class. The same is true for its protection. With that said… the fact that it can be as good as models costing almost twice is impressive. As such we have bumped up its performance rating to compensate for the sad state of the ruggedized external storage marketplace.
Technological Innovation: 17 out of 20
The innovation of the Armor steams from the fact that Silicon Power found a way to create a ruggedized portable drive that is arguably as good or even better than those costing significantly more than it. Now if they had only gotten the cord carrying feature right and we would have been truly impressed.
Build Quality & Warranty: 18 out of 20
While not perfect, the build quality of the Armor A66 is truly stellar and standout for its price range. Bluntly stated, it does not look, act, or feel like an inexpensive device. Instead, Silicon Power found a way to modify the ‘typical’ way of building a rugged portable HDD based storage device so that it was less costly to manufacture but still offered almost comparable levels of protection. The warranty on the other hand is best described as average. As such there is still room for improvement but not as much as the low asking price would lead one to believe.
Value: 20 out of 20
The Armor A66 makes the competition look massively overpriced. Excellent protection, excellent case design, similar performance, arguably better aesthetics… the Armor A66 offers it all and costs a whole lot less. That in our books makes it the new gold standard for ruggedized portable hard drives.
Final Score : 90 out of 100
The Silicon Power Armor A66 just shows how much can change in just one generation. Instead of just competing on price alone, the new and improved Armor A66 can hold its own against more expensive competitors on the performance, the protection, and asking price. That is one major paradigm shift for the Armor series. Now if Silicon Power would only stop using Type-A ports and we would really be happy with the Armor line.
