14 DAY TRIAL // Portable hard disk drives launch all the time, which means that their makers have to always add something new, or change something that's already there in order for sales to go well. The New Diamond D06 from Silicon Power is clear evidence of this.
There used to be a time when portable HDDs didn't have more than 500 GB or 1 TB capacity, but that has since changed, even for 2.5-inch models like the one that Silicon Power has just unveiled.
The newcomer, called Diamond D06 as we said before, has three capacity options. Two are the ones above, the third is 2 TB, a full double compared to the next best.
The price will be almost twice as high as that of the 1 TB unit because of that, but it is to be expected. Alas, the company did not include that information in the press release.
It did go into details about everything else, however, such as the use of the SuperSpeed Interface, the USB 3.0 technology that has become so ubiquitous yet still so fast that there is none better for any external storage product or peripheral.
Silicon Power has even paid special attention to data safety and has included antivirus software with every HDD. A 60-day trial version of NIS (Norton Internet Security) to be precise, plus the free download of the SP Widget, which includes seven major backup and security tools.
Because while portable HDDs are very useful for carting around media libraries, they are equally useful in backup and cloning, more so than flash drives, which are their more mundane alternatives.
Moving on, the Silicon Power Diamond D06 is compatible with essentially every operating system worth mentioning: Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Linux 2.6.31 or later, and Mac OS 10.5 or later.
As for the design, it is the reason that the new product range has the name it bears. The hardware is encased in a plastic shell with a diamond pattern and colored completely black. An LED indicator is included, to show the status of the operation (idle versus active read/write).
The surface is matte and scratch-resistant, to an extent, but the case isn't rugged, so don't expect to handle the thing through pouring rain or to drop it repeatedly without something going wrong inside.
Silicon Power should have the Diamond D06 up for sale soon, if it doesn't already, with a 3-year warranty, regardless of the capacity.