It doesn’t help that WD keeps the same names for its hard disk drive ranges even if new models are released almost every year. Take the, for example: TechRadar first reviewed it in 2013, and back then, it had a different design and a much smaller capacity.The 2019 version is a major upgrade on the 2017 spin, introducing a new design, a Type-C connector (rather than the flat USB one) and an updated version of WD’s Discovery software.
The My Passport Ultra (2019) is available direct from WD for $119.99 (4TB), $89.99 (2TB) and $69.99 (1TB) respectively.DesignWD has given the plastic/metal combo from the previous generation a different design, fusing modern anodized metal and textures, in either a dark blue or a silver finish. That’s down from six options in the previous range (which are still on sale at most retailers).There’s a white activity light which indicates that the device is active, idle, or in standby, and you get a USB Type-C connector (USB 3.1 Gen 1) plus a cable and a Type-C to Type-A adaptor.The reviewed 4TB model weighs 232g without the accessories, with a footprint of 82 x 110mm and a thickness of 21mm, almost double that of the 1TB/2TB models as it carries more platters. Here’s how the WD My Passport Ultra 4TB performed in our benchmark tests:CrystalDiskMark: 127MBps (read); 124MBps (write)Atto: 130MBps (read, 256mb); 122MBps (write, 256mb)AS SSD: 122MBps (seq read); 113MBps (seq write)PerformanceThis storage solution uses an OEM drive that’s not available on the open market – WD’s laptop drives have a maximum capacity of 2TB.
Here are the best Mac hard drives and external storage options in 2020. Below the reviews we've got general buying advice that explains what. WD My Passport Wireless Pro: Best for home entertainment & photographers.
You can buy it (WD40NMZM) from eBay, but it will cost four times the price of the WD My Passport Ultra 4TB portable drive – the laws of supply and demand at work!What we know is that this hard disk drive has 5,400RPM platters, probably two of them, each with a 2TB capacity, hence the increased thickness. We don’t know the cache capacity, but what we can observe is that it generally performs worse compared to the G-Tech 2TB mobile USB-C drive, which is likely to contain a 2TB single platter version of this drive.Our standard 10GB test file was transferred in just under 100 seconds, making this one of the slowest drives we’ve tested recently. The WD My Passport Ultra does get relatively warm in use and produces an audible hum (about 48dB if you put your ear to it – not that you’re likely to do that, of course).The WD Discovery software acts as a dashboard that offers access to the My Passport drive and to My Cloud Home (if you have an account). From here, you can switch off the LED light, and set up a password for your drive with 256-bit AES hardware encryption. It also carries an app store that provides direct access to free and paid applications at reduced prices.
At least one of these apps – ENCSecurity’s Encryptstick– is obsolete, however. Grab WD Backup and WD Security, though, as they are decent and versatile solutions which cost nothing.Then there’s which is the solution from WD. You get 20GB free off-the-bat, with cross-platform compatibility and two-factor authentication by default.
Upgrade to 100GB for $1.99 per month with no yearly contract.Final verdictWith a three-year warranty by default, a useful set of utilities, a reasonable retail price and decent performance, the WD My Passport Ultra 4TB (2019) marginally improves on an already good product.In a mature market where the upper limit for portable hard disk drives seems to be 4TB – we tested one of this size back in 2015! – there’s little need or desire to innovate, with pricing becoming the sole metric these drives are judged on.Against the likes of the, which costs 25% less, the lure of a three-year warranty and a Type-C connector might be diminished. Plus the Seagate drive comes with a two-month complementary membership to the Plan worth $20.Then there’s the other more affordable WD portable hard disk drive, the, which retails for a smidgen under $100. It lacks hardware encryption and the three-year warranty, but is more than likely to pack the same hard drive as the My Passport Ultra.All in all, consider the My Passport Ultra if you want the lengthy three-year warranty and absolutely need a Type-C connector.
The drive’s performance is on par with the rest of the competition, and its software bundle is useful. We’ve picked out the.
WD’s My Passport 4TB mobile USB 3.0 drive lets you stuff a lot of data in your pocket without emptying it of cash. While not as fast with sequential transfers as the LaCie and Seagate drives we’ll be comparing it to, it’s certainly fast enough. And, at $115 on the street, it's considerably cheaper.This review is part of our. Go there for details on competing products and how we tested them.
Design and specsBecause the 4TB drive housed inside is 15mm thick, the My Passport 4TB isn’t as thin as many lower-capacity units, measuring 0.85 inch from top to bottom. It’s approximately 4.25 inches long, 3.1 inches wide, and weighs around 8 ounces. The My Passport is also available in $60 1TB, $80 2TB, and $100 3TB capacities, with the 1TB version being about 0.2 inch thinner and 2 ounces lighter. All models come with a three-year warranty.The My Passport also ships in a variety of hues, starting with the black of our test drive and moving on to brighter white, red, orange, blue, and yellow. That’s six in all: one for every weekday, plus another for the weekend.
Lest you consider that remark flippant, note that some backups are rotated by days of the week, and a little color-coding never hurt anyone. WD informed us that the colors are simply to entice buyers, however. WDThe WD My Passport offers more flair than you might expect from a mainstream portable USB drive. The wavy bevels also make for a better grip.WD has added even more consumer bait by beveling a stylish wavy texture into the half of the drive that’s home to the powered micro-B USB port and power indicator. The waves also provide a better grip on the smooth, glossy plastic. After the color-coding response, we didn’t ask whether tactile grip was the reason, but it does have that effect. SoftwareWD doesn’t provide anything fancy like LaCie’s dual FAT/NTFS or HFS+ partitioning utility, but you can use the Windows or OS X (or Linux) system utilities for that.
WD does provide backup software; a drive utility that will check the status and secure-erase the drive; as well as encryption software for dealing with sensitive data. This is a very nice software bundle considering that the My Passport is essentially the company’s entry-level USB drive. PerformanceWe started off the review with a mild warning about the My Passport 4TB’s tepid performance with large files, and indeed it falls about 10MBps short of average. But it’s also better than average at writing large batches of smaller files and folders, as you can see in the chart below.
PCWorldThe WD My Passport is faster than its Seagate and LaCie rivals with lots of smaller files and folders, but not in sustained throughput.Still, CrystalDiskMark shows a clear drop-off from Seagate’s products (the company owns LaCie) when it comes to sequential throughput. PCWorldCrystalDiskMark rated the WD My Passport as slower than LaCie and Seagate’s similar drives, but it’s still fast enough for most purposes—and cheaper.
ConclusionOkay, the WD My Passport isn’t the, or the, which are what you want if you need to copy a fair amount of stuff quickly and be on your way. But it offers what most people want: fast performance with small files and copies, and a budget-friendly price—at least currently. If you're paying MSRP (about $5 to $20 more), it’s a somewhat trickier decision whether to give up the 10MBps to 20MBps of sustained throughput offered by other drives.