Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
It ’s not the fastest voiceless ride around , but the My Passport for Mac provides plenty of portable storage at a militant price .
Best Prices Today: Western Digital My Passport
The gamey public presentation and compendious pattern of solid - country drives makes them idealistic for people who require a portable backup driving force that they can comport with them when they ’re traveling with their laptop . However , SSDs are still relatively expensive , and they also tend to have more special capacity than old - fashioned mechanical hard private road . If you need several tebibyte of storage for your Time Machine backing or study files then a traditional mechanical hard drive is still worth considering .
heavy drives have their own limitation , though , as they ’re mostly heavier and large than SSDs , and portable backbreaking drives such asWestern Digital ’s popular My Passportcould generally only volunteer 5 TB of storage before they simply became too turgid and heavy to carry around with your laptop . So Western Digital now exact to have made a breakthrough with the 2024 version of the My Passport , which it describes as “ the macrocosm ’s first 2.5 - inch 6 TB portable hard drive ” . In fact , Western Digital does n’t even bother to provide a 1 TB option with the My Passport any longer , start out with a minimum of 2 TB for $ 84.99/£75.99 , with 4 TB , 5 TB and 6 TB mannikin also usable . And even the 6 TB model that we review here only costs $ 184.99/£165.99 , so the My Passport for certain allow for a very affordable backup option for laptop computer exploiter .
The canonical design of the parkway has n’t changed very much with this update , with a very straightforward dark - blue , rectangular credit card shell that is adorned with only a few diagonal stripes running across the top panel . As we ’ve seen with previous My Passport drives , the 2 TB fashion model is quite a turn slimmer and lighter than the other model , measure 13.5 millimeter thick , 75 millimeter wide and 107 mm farseeing , and count just 140 g. The 4 TB and 5 TB example increase to a heaviness of 19.2 mm , while the 6 TB model that we review here is a relatively chunky 20.6 mm thick , with these three models all weighing 210 g.
fairly funnily , the My Passport drive still use an mature USB Micro - B interface , although Western Digital does include a USB - A cable with a freestanding USB - C adaptor , so you’re able to utilize the movement with raw Macs that only have USB - one C as well as older Macs with USB - A. It ’s a little odd that Western Digital does n’t simply take over the more mod USB - degree centigrade port for the drives , but that ’s not really a major critique as the circumscribe pep pill of mechanical voiceless drives do n’t really require the higher data transfer rate that are supported by USB - C. The My Passport ride also admit Western Digital ’s Discovery app for Mac and Windows , which provides parole protection and encoding feature to help you keep significant single file and data safe in case the drive gets lost or stolen .
metalworks
The other oddity is that – as we ’ve seen in the past – Western Digital persist in to propose a rather confusing variety of models within the My Passport kitchen stove . The touchstone My Passport drive is take at Windows user and include a USB - A cable , while the My Passport For Mac that we review here throws in a USB - atomic number 6 adapter and is also pre - formatted for use with Macs directly out of the box seat . There ’s also a mannequin with the daft name My Passport Works With USB - 100 , which seems to be monovular to the ‘ For Mac ’ theoretical account but apply the exFAT campaign format , which is compatible with both Macs and Windows . More utile perhaps are the two ‘ Ultra ’ model – My Passport Ultra andMy Passport Ultra for Mac ( show our review ) – which are slenderly more expensive , but have a hardy metal casing that might be utile for people who work outside and need some spare protection .
Western Digital is also a little vague about the drive ’s performance . Its website states that all the My Passport drives leave a transportation rate of ‘ up to 5Gb / s ’ – but that actually pertain to the USB user interface rather than the punishing drive itself . Our tests with the My Passport for Mac show that it nudged just past 100MB / s for both read and write execution , which is obviously far obtuse than an SSD driveway , but interchangeable to old . It ’ll be fine for routine Time Machine backups , although originative users who need to work with magnanimous nontextual matter or video files might still prefer a faster solid - res publica drive .
Should you buy Western Digital My Passport for Mac?
There are faster hard thrust available – as well as SSDs , of course – and it ’s long retiring fourth dimension for WD to adopt a modern USB - carbon interface . Even so , the My Passport for Mac still stands out from most of its portable competitor by offering up to 6 TB of storage at a very militant price .
See how it compares to otherhard driveway for Macin our round of drinks - up of the best .
