Iomega eGo Portable Mac Edition Review

Iomega eGo Portable Mac Edition Review
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Iomega eGo Portable Mac Edition Review

iomega-ego-portable-mac-editon

Iomega has made quite a name for itself in the past few years. The Prestige and eGo range of portable hard drives from Iomega have received good reviews and offer a nice option to anyone who doesn’t want to go with Seagate or Western Digital hard drives. In this review, I will check out the Iomega eGo Portable Mac Edition, the 500 GB version. It is available in two colors: Ruby Red and Silver and also comes in two capacities: 320 GB and 500 GB.

The eGo Portable Mac Edition offers USB 2.0, Firewire 400 as well as Firewire 800 connectivity and is priced very competitively.

Iomega eGo Portable Mac Edition Specs

  • Dimensions: 0.625 x 3.5 x 5.625 inches
  • Connectivity: USB 2.0, FireWire 400, FireWire 800
  • Capacities: 320 GB, 500 GB
  • Colors: Ruby Red, Silver
  • Operating Systems: Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Mac OS X 10.1 or higher, Linux
  • Warranty: 3 years, limited warranty
  • Price: $119 (500 GB)

Design (4 out of 5)

The Iomega eGo Portable Mac edition has one of the best designs in the world of portable hard drives. The Ruby Red version especially, looks strikingly good and stylish. The size is similar to the Windows version which has just USB 2.0 connectivity, but it’s slightly more bulky because of the addition of the Firewire 800 and Firewire 400 port. It has dimensions of 0.625 x 3.5 x 5.625 inches and is easily pocketable. The build quality is quite good and the drive can handle a bit of being thrown around. The case is smooth and glossy and has the standard rectangular form factor.

Features (4 out of 5)

The Iomega eGo Portable Mac edition comes with a lot of features. It supports all 3 connectivity options: USB 2.0, Firewire 400 and Firewire 800. On the drive, there is also a small LED indicator. It comes with a lot of freebies: Iomega QuikProtect, Trend Smart Surfing for Mac (12 month trial), MozyHome Online backup software (2 GB free) and Iomega Drop Guard. The Drop Guard feature is really good, it can protect the drive from up to a 52 inch drop. It also comes with EMC’s backup software which allows you to take automated backups and restore data from the saved backups.

It comes formatted with HFS+ for Mac users but you can always reformat it and use it with Windows or Linux as well.

Performance (4 out of 5)

The Iomega eGo Portable really shines when it comes to hard drive performance. Though it is not the cheapest hard drive on the block, it offers very good data transfer speeds. It has read / write speeds of around 30 MBps and 25 MBps via USB 2.0 and performs even better with Firewire. It has a Firewire 400 read speed of around 32 MBps and a write speed of close to 48 MBps. In Firewire 800, it has a read speed of 30 MBps but a write speed of 62 MBps. The speeds are really good with all the connectivity options. The drive is also quite silent and runs cool; it heats up slightly only after prolonged usage.

The Verdict (4 out of 5)

The Iomega eGo Portable Mac Edition is a very stylish drive which offers USB 2.0, Firewire 400 and 800 connectivity at a reasonable price of $120 for the 500 GB version. I would definitely recommend it. If you want a cheaper drive with just USB 2.0 connectivity, try the Transcend Storejet 25F.