WD’s new external hard drives cram 6TB into a deck of cards

Hard drives. They still exist, believe it or not, and they’re still the best bang-for-your-buck when it comes to absolutely massive amounts of storage. Take three new offerings from Western Digital for example. While these 2.5-inch drives (the kind that used to go into laptops) aren’t blazing fast, you’d have a very hard time sticking so many files in your pocket for such little money with flash.

Today the company announced that its WD My Passport Ultra, WD_Black P10 Game Drive, and SanDisk G-Drive Armor ATD portable hard drives are all coming in new 6-terabyte capacities. That’s about five to ten times the storage capacity of the average new laptop or desktop, available with a USB 3.2 Gen 1, up to for your convenience. It’ll take a hell of a long time to actually fill up the drive, but you can do it.

The three different flavors of drive come with different enclosures. The Game Drive is the cheapest of the lot at $189.99, but it has a disappointing “Micro-B” USB connection (that weird MicroUSB type with the extra-wide add-on). The other two, the button-down My Passport Ultra for $205 and the beefy, ultra-protected G-Drive for $230, come with USB-C. But they should all have approximately the same performance. (Those prices are all on Western Digital’s online store — they tend to be considerably cheaper at retail over time.)

Consider that for a trade-off in size and speed, you’re getting a heck of a deal. The biggest portable SSD from Western Digital is the SanDisk Extreme Portable, with a sticker price of $360 for 4TB. These new high-capacity hard drives are effectively one third of that price byte for byte. If you have more time than money, it’s hard to ignore the savings. For even more portable storage stunners, be sure to check out our roundup of the best external drives.

Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer