Seagate One Touch SSD Review: A Speedy, Sleek Storage Solution

| Updated: Saturday, February 15, 2020, 17:00 [IST]

Computer storage devices, both internal and external have advanced radically over the years. Seagate is one of the popular brands known for their storage solutions with both HDD and SSD options. The new Seagate One Touch is one such SSD that comes with 1TB storage and a sleek, compact design.

Rating:

4.0/5

PROS

Compact size
Fast read and write speeds

CONS

No Type-C cable
Difficult to use with new MacBook

The Seagate One Touch SSD is sized like a credit card and can easily be carried around in your pockets. It is available in two color variants, black and white. There is also two options for storage, where the 500GB variant costs Rs. 5,310 and the 1TB variant is priced at Rs. 10,220. I got to use the SSD to test its speed and performance. I've detailed out the performance results and more in this review.

Design: Compact And Easy To Carry Around

Let me start with the design. It can be compared with a credit card. The top surface of the SSD has a cloth-like texture in grey color for easy grip. The backside of the device also has a similar texture in white color with product details. There's a small LED indicator that shows a steady white color once connected to the system.

The connecting cable slot is placed right in the center of the upper, longer-side of the SSD. The compact size makes it perfect to simply slip into your pocket. Moreover, it is lightweight, another plus point for the accessory.

Connecting With Devices

The Seagate SSD comes with a cable to connect with both Mac and Windows systems. The cable has a USB 3.0 Micro B (that connects with the SSD) and USB 3.0 support (to link with the PC). Seagate packs the drive with the cable, so you don't need to worry if you don't have one. All Microsoft computers running Windows 7 and above and Mac systems running macOS 10.12 and higher can use the drive.

One of the drawbacks I faced with the Seagate SSD is that there's no USB-C support, which means you can't connect it with your smartphone compatible with type-C. Seagate notes that users will need to purchase an adaptable USB C cable for those who wish to connect with such devices.

Moreover, the latest MacBook comes sans USB-A ports and make do with USB-C ports. This means that those using the new MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air will require an additional cable with type-C support, which Seagate doesn't provide.

Seagate SSD Performance: Speedy Enough

I ran a couple of benchmarks to test the speed performance of the Seagate pocketable drive. The CrystalDiskMark 6.0 recorded a read speed of 376.5 MB/s and a write speed of 137.9 MB/s in the seq Q32T1 test; it also recorded a 146.2 MB/s read speed and a 7.512 MB/s write speed in the 4KiB Q8T8 test.

As a comparison, the WD My Passport Go with 500GB storage shows a read speed of 318.7 MB/s and a write speed of 115.8 MB/s in the Seq Q32T1 test. In the 4KiB Q8T8 test, this portable SSD has scored a read speed of 48.39 MB/s and a write speed of 6.508 MB/s. It shows that the Seagate One Touch SSD comes with faster read and write speeds.

On the box, the Seagate notes that it's a 1TB drive. However, on formatting, we often see the usable storage is much lesser. But in the case of the One Touch SSD, I found the total space to be 1TB, based on the test run on NVM Express 1.3. This is another plus point for the Seagate drive.

Real-World Performance: Doesn’t Disappoint

After testing the Seagate One Touch on these benchmarks, I had to try out how it functions in the real world. I connected the SSD to a USB 3.0 slot on my laptop and transferred a 2GB file from the disk to my device. I found the read speed of 343 MB/s. Next, I tested the write speed, which I found to be 113 MB/s for a similar file. In other words, a movie sized roughly 2GB, transferred in about 15-20 seconds, which is quite fast.

Verdict

The 1TB Seagate One Touch SSD performance scored well in all the tests. There's no doubt that it is fast and will allow the users to quickly load files and apps. If you use a lot of heavy files for everyday purposes, then this SSD is apt for you. Moreover, the read and write speeds are certainly a plus point, when compared to other SSD and HDD.

Moreover, the compact and sleek design is a bonus to carry around. Yes, it misses out on a few points like the lack of type-C support, but it makes it up in performance. The Touch SSD costs Rs. 10,220 for 1TB storage exclusive of taxes. There are a couple of offers with online retailers like Amazon that buyers can check out.