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USB 3.0 has become more of a rule than the exception nowadays, as an increasing number of manufacturers are switching to the interface for quicker data transfer. Portable hard disk manufacturers are also making the switch and it’s a given that USB 2.0 will soon be phased out. A plethora of companies are manufacturing portable hard drives and now, Hitachi have come up with the new Touro Mobile Pro portable drive with USB 3.0 and a data storage capacity of 500 GB. Does Hitachi’s new portable drive pack a punch? Read on to find out. The Hitachi Touro Mobile Pro
Design and Features The Hitachi Touro Mobile Pro hard drive comes in a glossy black colour. It has a sleek, thin exterior with the company name embossed on the front and the model number and storage capacity on the back of the drive. The USB 3.0 supporting device also has a silver rim along the sides which gives it a very professional look. The hard drive we reviewed did catch a lot of scratches and fingerprints and the worst part is that all these are quite visible under most lighting conditions. This might not be a problem for most people, as it’s the weight rather than the looks that matter to most, while choosing a portable hard drive. The Hitachi Touro weighs a cool 155gm which is definitely one of the lighter models available in the market. A close up of the portable hard disk
As far as features are concerned, the USB 3.0 portable drive has a usable storage capacity of 465 GB. The drive inside the Hitachi runs at 7200rpm and has a cache memory of 15MB and comes with a rather short cable that might be a problem for some users. The hard drive allows two options for data backup and storage – local and on the cloud. The cloud storage provides a free storage of 3GB for registered users that can be utilized via a simple, effective interface. Overall, the Hitachi Touro exudes class and matches up in features as well. ![]() Two options for data backup - local and on the cloud
Test Rig Specifications Processor: Intel Core i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40 GHz Motherboard: Gigabyte P67A-UD3R Memory: Corsair Dominator GT 6 GB DDR3 (3 x 2 GB) Hard drive: WD Velociraptor 300 GB GPU: AMD Radeon HD6970 PSU: Cooler Master 1000W
Performance We connected the Hitachi Touro to a test PC and ran a few synthetic and real world tests. The SiSoft Sandra test gave a read drive index of 86.8 MB/s at a random access time of 13.86 ms. HDTach gave a random access time of 16.6 ms at a CPU utilization of 1%. The average read cycle was 89.3 MB/s and the burst speed was 180.5 MB/s. CrystalDiskMark 3.0 gave sequential read rates of 113.5 MB/s and sequential write rates of 113.4 MB/s. Random 4K read rates recorded a 0.51MB/s and random 4K write rates recorded a 0.793 MB/s. The device did perform fairly well in the synthetic tests but these tests divulge only half of the details and it’s the real world tests that actually test the drive’s performance.
We took two files – sequential (single 4GB file) and random (assorted data of 4GB) and put the Hitachi Touro through its paces. Below are the results we’ve charted out over a graph.
![]() Performance Chart
A 107.7 MB/s speed for writing a 4GB sequential file and a 110.7 for a 4GB sequential read is definitely impressive. As visible from the graph, as far as performance is concerned the Hitachi Touro Mobile Pro definitely delivers.
Verdict The Hitachi Touro can be currently bought at a price of Rs. 4,408. Besides the local data storage capabilities it also provides an additional 3GB of data backup on the cloud. There are a lot of softwares that provide free data backup on the cloud, so that feature gets more or less negated. As far as the performance is concerned, it's definitely faster than most portable drives and particularly, the WD My Passport, but the storage capacity provided is a mere 500GB. We believe it is pretty expensively priced (hence the 5/10 rating) as compared to the current portable hard drives in the market. Hitachi have done pretty much everything correct with this drive, but it's definitely not worth a buy unless Hitachi plans a massive price drop, which seems pretty unlikely. |
REVIEWS / EXTERNAL DRIVES / HITACHI
Hitachi Touro Mobile Pro 500GB portable drive
19 Aug, 2011, 1:16 pm IST | by
Karan Shah
|
External drives
Hitachi Touro Mobile Pro HTOLMXNA5001ABB
,Hitachi Touro Mobile Pro HTOLMXNA5001ABB review
,Hitachi Touro Mobile Pro HTOLMXNA5001ABB price in India
,Hitachi Touro Mobile Pro HTOLMXNA5001ABB price
,Hitachi Touro Mobile Pro HTOLMXNA5001ABB specs
,Hitachi Touro Mobile Pro HTOLMXNA5001ABB specification
Tags:
Hitachi , Hitachi Touro , Hitachi Touro Mobile Pro , Touro Mobile Pro , Hitachi Touro HDD , Hitachi Touro Hard Drive , Hitachi Portable Hard Drives , USB 3.0 , Hitachi External HDD , Hitachi External harddrives
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The Tech2 Labs receives many products every single week and each of them is tested with the utmost care and highest level of objectivity. There’s a constant effort to reduce and totally eliminate subjectivity. Each product is tested according to set test processes so the same test scenario is used.

Verdict
The ratings awarded to a product are derived from a number of tests and calculations, keeping certain important factors in mind. These factors consist of features, performance, quality and value for money. In case of software and some other categories, build quality might be replaced with ease of use or ease of installation. Products are compared with other products in a similar price range or product category.
Features
The features component of the score is rated based on the kind of features present on a particular product. Features are a big part of what people look for when they’re buying a new product such as a phone or a camera.
Performance
The performance score is derived from the benchmarks and tests run on the product. In case of the subjective scores, an average of the scores given by the group of reviewers is considered.
Build Quality
The build quality of a product is important so that it doesn’t fall apart after some use. The build quality scores from the way the product is designed and the kind of materials used in the product.
Value
Value for money comes from the fact that a cheap product is able to provide most of the performance of a higher priced product. Once again, value for money is judged by comparing pricing and performance of products in a particular price range or category.
There are many other aspects of the product that are looked at such as the bundled software and accessories. All of these scores are aggregated together to form the final score.
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Ratings are simple - higher the score, the better the product. A brief listing of the features and what they mean are given below.
1 - 3
The product is bad in almost every aspect. We strongly advise against purchasing this product.
4 - 6
An average product that isn't the best you can buy, but isn't the worst either.
7 - 8
Product with this rating is highly recommended because it's priced sensibly, has a good set of features and performs well.
9 - 10
Exceptionally excellent product with features and performance unlike any we've seen in the past. A must-have for everyone!
What is the Average User Rating?
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