Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Slim Review

Portable drives are a basic necessity nowadays and there are a lot of options to consider out there.

The most common and affordable ones would be the regular portable HDD which offers somewhere from 500GB to a few terabytes of mobile storage.

Seagate has a number of portable storage solutions and the thinnest and lightest of them all is the Ultra Slim model, the thinnest and sleekest of them all.

Dashboard Features

A lot of people start using their new portable HDD and not really bother to install the accompanying back-up software. The Seagate Dashboard makes it more compelling by including more practical case uses that best benefits the regular user.

The Seagate portable drives come with a dedicated Dashboard app for both Windows and Mac to help you manage the drive and set it for different back-up configuration.

The Dashboard offers some additional features like:

Back-up to Cloud. Seagate has its own cloud service which you can subscribe to for free.

Mobile Backup. This feature requires you to create a Seagate Mobile Backup Account and also install the Seagate Backup App on the smartphone you wish to back up. Running this will allow you to store all your data on your smartphone to the cloud and to the Seagate Ultra Slim drive.

Restore from Cloud. You can restore all those backups you made from your laptop or smartphone if something happens.

Social. Directly share your media files (photos and videos) into your social media accounts like Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.

Activating the Seagate Dashboard offers you more than just an external hard drive to dump your files. It maximizes the capabilities of the system to conveniently include automatic backups and easy restore options.

Slim and Stylish

The Ultra Slim comes in two capacities — 1TB and 2 TB with a sleek design and slim profile that’s either in gold or platinum colors.

At 9.6mm, this is the thinnest portable HDD we’ve seen so far. It’s also very light at just 135 grams, lighter than most smartphones out there.

The enclosure has simple yet elegant look that comes with a two-tone color — matte black at the bottom end and a bit glossy at the top in either gold or platinum color. The upper side has large dimpled designs that help provide the grip when holding the device and also gives it a nice shimmer when hit by light at different angles.

There’s a small LED strip light indicator in the corner that blinks when the drive is active or busy reading/writing.

Large Capacity in a Small Package

With a very small profile, it’s amazing that you can have a lot of available room for storage.

The Ultra Slim comes in two storage options — 1TB and 2TB. That’s more than enough for your mobile needs, whether as a backup for your laptop or extra space for archiving media files you don’t really need to access very often.

Remember — that’s up to 2TB of storage for a device that only weighs 135 grams. The slim profile also means it won’t take up much space in your bag or you can even slip it in your laptop sleeve or your pocket without really noticing it.

Drive Performance

The Seagate Ultra Slim drive supports USB 3.0 and promises very good performance in terms of transfer speeds.

Here are the results of the speed tests:

Sequential Read: 125MB/s
Sequential Write: 41MB/s
Random Read: 80MB/s
Random Write: 37MB/s

The numbers are pretty good for a HDD, especially for the sequential read and write. At this rate, the drive can theoretically read the entire 2TB drive of contents in just 4.5 hours.

Pricing

For the 2TB version of the Seagate backup Plus Ultra Slim, local pricing is pegged at Php5,699USD 97INR 8,233EUR 92CNY 707 (via Lazada here) while the 1TB is Php3,799USD 65INR 5,488EUR 62CNY 471 (see listing here). The effective price per gigabyte would be Php2.875USD 0.05INR 4EUR 0.05CNY 0.36/GB for the 2TB and Php3.9USD 0.07INR 6EUR 0.06CNY 0.48/GB for the 1TB model.

These are pretty good price points, especially if you get the 2TB model.

Conclusion

We have to say it — the Seagate Ultra Slim is one of the best options out there if you want a very portable, travel-friendly back-up drive. It’s slim, light, has a simple but nice design and can carry a lot of storage. It also comes with additional features via the Seagate Dashboard that maximizes the use of the portable drive.

Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Slim specs:
2.5″ Hard Disk Drive
USB 2.0, 3.0 Support
1TB & 2TB storage options
Gold and Platinum colors
Windows and macOS support
9.6mm thin
135 grams (weight)

What we liked about it:
* Nice design
* Very slim and light
* Large storage capacity
* Good performance in terms of read/write speeds
* Additional features via Dashboard
* Reasonable price point

What we did not like:
* No carrying case or protective pouch included