Western Digital with WW Highest Capacity 2.5-Inch HDDs: 6TB
$200 for WD My Passport Ultra and My Passport Ultra for Mac, $180 for WD My Passport and WD My Passport for Mac, $185 for WD My Passport with USB-C, $185 for WD_BLACK P10 Game Drive, and $230 for SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE ArmorATD.
This is a Press Release edited by StorageNewsletter.com on May 20, 2024 at 2:02 pmWestern Digital Corp.is introducing a portable HDD expansion across its WD, WD_BLACK and SanDisk Professional product lineups, boasting a world’s highest storage capacity in a 2.5” portable HDD with 6TB.
The WD My Passport portable HDD line, WD_BLACK P10 Game Drive and SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE ArmorATD will all now be available in 6TB (*) capacities.
“Expanding our portfolio with the world’s first 2.5” 6TB (*) portable hard drive is an incredible technological achievement, and it enables us to continue pushing the boundaries of what’s possible,” said Nitin Kachhwaha, director, product management. “Offering up to 6TB (*) in such a small form factor and accessible price point gives everyone – from students, gamers, professional videographers, and more – greater flexibility to create and keep even more of their essential content in one portable drive.”
The record-breaking 6TB (*) capacity point is available across the company’s premier brands, offering a more robust, purpose-built solution for consumers, gamers and pros:
Confidently backup next journey with WD
With up to 6TB (*) capacities available for the WD My Passport HDD line, adventurers can store more backup their digital memories with peace of mind. The My Passport Ultra drive is a trusted, portable storage solution that is equipped with USB-C technology and a modern metal design. It is ready right out of the box and features a convenient, slim form factor that is transportable. Its password protection with 256-bit AES hardware encryption helps keep precious content safe and secure. The My Passport hard drives are available in different colors.
The 6TB (*) WD My Passport Ultra and 6TB (*) WD My Passport Ultra for Mac both retail for $199.99 MSRP. The 6TB (*) WD My Passport and WD My Passport for Mac both retail for $179.99 MSRP. The 6TB (*) WD My Passport, Works with USB-C retails for $184.99 MSRP.
All products are available at select company’s retailers, e-tailers and on the firm’s Digital Store.
Enhancing competitive edge in gaming with WD_BLACK
The WD_BLACK P10 Game Drive allows gamers to furnish their console or PC with performance-enhancing tools to keep up with the pace of today’s complex AAA titles. With the 6TB (*) capacities now available that can store up to 150 games (1), the drive is built for players looking to upgrade the storage of their console or PC and enjoy gaming without having to compromise which games to delete or updates to forgo to make room for new titles.
The 6TB (*) WD_BLACK P10 Game Drive retails for $184.99 MSRP. The drive is available at select company’s retailers, e-tailers and on the firm’s Digital Store.
Get shot with SanDisk Professional
With SanDisk Professional’s G-DRIVE ArmorATD drive, consumers get an all-terrain drive with shock, IP54 rain and dust, and crush resistance (2) to help protect valuable footage from out in the wild to back in the studio. The 6TB (*) SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE ArmorATD provides a trusted and portable way to back up photos, video footage and files wherever adventure leads.
The 6TB (*) SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE ArmorATD retails for $229.99 MSRP. The drive will be available by the end of this month at select company’s Digital retailers, e-tailers and on the firm’s Digital Store.
(*) 1TB = one trillion bytes. Actual user capacity may be less, depending on operating environment.
(1) Number of games based on a 36GB average per game. The number of games will vary based on file size, formatting, other programs, and factors.
(2) Based on internal testing. Shock resistance up to 1.2m on a carpeted concrete floor for 1 and 2TB capacities, and up to 1m on a carpeted concrete floor for 4, 5 and 6TB capacities. Crush resistance up to 1,000lbs. IEC 60529 IP54: Tested to withstand water splashing against the enclosure; limited dust contact does not interfere with operation. Must be clean and dry before use.
Comments
Up to now, the highest capacity into a 2.5-inch desktop HDD was 5TB for the Seagate STGX5000400 (5 platters, 10 heads) released in October 2016 or more than 8 years ago. WD was culminating at 2TB at around the same time. The only other HDD makers, Toshiba, was at a maximum of 3TB for a drive announced as far as March 2015.
According to Trendfocus, compared to 3.5-inch drives, 2.5-inch HDDs represented only 28% of the global HDD market in 1CQ24 with this percentage expected to continue to diminish in the future.
That's why we thought this small form factor will progressively disappear being less and less competitive with SSDs seeing their price declining and capacity growing.
Here WD demonstrates the contrary with the announcement of these new line of 2.5-inch HDDs at a record of 6TB.
The company didn't reveal neither the number of disk platters and heads (5/10?) nor the recording technology used on these new devices.
We didn't find a 6TB SSD, but a price's comparison with $180 for the new 6TB drive, the WD 4TB BLACK P50 GameDrive SSD costs $430, and for 2 SSDs from Samsung, 4TB version is priced at $318 and 8TB at $531.
Two questions remain:
- Will the end user be ready to pay a premium for a SSD, faster, more reliable and consuming less power?
- Will Seagate and Toshiba follow WD with 6TB 2.5-inch HDDs?
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