With digital downloads becoming more prevalent, from indie titles to full retail games, storage is becoming a bigger deal when it comes to PC and consoles. Fortunately, there are a number of external drives that can work quite well, as was the case with Western Digital's My Book drive . However, what about for those that prefer something a bit more portable?
That's where WD's new My Passport X external drive comes in. Made for the Xbox One and PC/Mac, the external drive features 2 terabytes of space and uses USB 3.0 (it also supports USB 2.0) connectivity for both data transfers and power. The unit is pretty small as well, coming in at 3.21 x 4.33 inches, and is only 0.83 inches thick. The company boasted that setup was a snap, but I didn't expect it to be ready to go as quickly as it was. To test it out, I connected it to my Xbox One, which read the drive immediately. I was then prompted to format the drive, which took all of four seconds to complete before it was ready to go, and I opted for the console to allow it to install new games and save data to the drive by default.
After the setup, I went ahead and installed a handful of games, from Battlefield Hardline, to Guacamelee and Killer Instinct. Upon those installs, I launched each game and was happy to see them startup quickly, as the drive has continued to provide quick access to each game and saved data over the course of the last two weeks without hiccup.
You can also take the Passport X and use it on a friend's Xbox One if they have internet access to play your games or continue from where you left off with saved game data. Western Digital also provides a one-year limited warranty.
I must say I've been very happy with the ease of use and the overall performance of the Passport X so far. Anyone can install this drive without any real technical knowledge and the 2 TB of space is enough for at least 50 games. At $139, the Passport X is a great deal and any gamer who prefers to download digital copies of titles, be it from Xbox Live, Steam, Origin, or any other PC/Mac marketplace, this external drive is a must-have.
Final Score: 5 out of 5
via Examiner National Edition Gadgets & Tech Channel Articles http://www.examiner.com/article/review-western-digital-s-my-passport-x-external-drive?cid=roadrunner