Short Version: It’s an external USB hard drive for your Mac. It’s white.
Features
- Pre-formatted in HFS+ for OS X
- Time Machine compatible
- Bus-powered
- Color matches MacBooks
- $139 MSRP
Pros
- It’s white like your MacBook
Cons
- Bigger and heavier than most other bus-powered 500GB external hard drives
- Questionable build quality
Review
So this is just another external hard drive. Yeah, there isn’t anything special about it besides the white case. That’s not to say it’s a bad drive because from what I can see, it’s fine. But it’s clearly meant for those MacBook owners who must have matching accessories. You know who you are.
The drive comes formatted in OS X-friendly HFS+. This always means that it’s ready for Time Machine making it a solid, out-of-the-box backup solution. Or Windows users always have the option of formatting the drive in NTFS.
Speed-wise, the USB 2.0 5400 drive is on par with Seagate’s 1TB bus-powered drive. Both drives took 0:50~ to transfer a 970MB file. Not too shabby in my book.
The drive clearly tries to replicate the MacBook’s premium feel and look, but actually fails. While the G Drive mobile is sleek, clean, and feels solid, the drive’s only seam partly protrudes from the top, reveling a harsh edge. The whole package is also a lot larger and heavier than other 500GB options from Seagate or Western Digital.
Bottom Line
The G Drive mobile USB is a fine drive even with the questionable build quality. The only real strike against it is that it’s somewhat pricey with a $139 MSRP for only 500GB of storage. A quick search online will reveal a dozen 500GB drives for $99 or less that are the same speed but also physically smaller. Still, if you must have a drive to match your new MacBook, this is probably your best option.
What a beautiful drive! But I guess I bias – I work for G-Tech. Performance is good. Matches your MacBook. And G-Tech is known for quality. I guess you get what you pay for… BTW – if you’d like to enter to win one, go to http://www.g-technology.com/SundanceFilmFestival/
Thanks for the review Matt.
Great drive Best external I’ve had yet!! Now lets get it up to 1 and 2tb!!
You overlooked the quality of the internal components. G-Tech uses premium Hitachi drives in all of their products along with Oxford bridge chipsets. In my experience, Hitachi drives have been the most reliable to date (understanding everyone has their favorite drive brand).
As a follow-up to that claim about premium Hitachi components, I feel I should mention that several online retailers with review function have very negative reviews about G-tech drives. Personally, I only have one acquaintance who ever purchased a G-drive, and he had to return it after 3 months of only so-so usage. The replacement drive has worked flawlessly, however.
Now, these are all empiric data and have no statistical value whatsoever, but going by what I’ve learned from gadget shopping over the years, more expensive doesn’t necessarily equate more durable. No manufacturer has a completely clean vest, but more than anything I’d recommend investing in a company with good customer care and a decent returns policy. For that reason alone, I cannot ever recommend Iomega to a private consumer. As always, ymmv but if you’re going to buy something like an external HDD to store vital data on, buy something reliable that, if it fails, is also reliably replaced.