14 DAY TRIAL // LaCie recently announced that it was expanding its portable hard-drive lineup with one model featuring the award-winning Rugged casing. While simply giving the unit the self-explanatory name Rugged eSATA, the company is describing the product as combining superior transfer speeds with a truly mobile form. The hard disk is aimed at end-users that want a device whose sturdiness does not come at the price of performance.
The LaCie Rugged eSATA uses the Power eSATA interface. Power eSATA is actually the name of the built-in USB-eSATA combo interface, whose connector is slightly different from the regular eSATA. This connectivity capability may be found on late-model laptops, but, in case such connectivity is unavailable, the drive can still connect via standard eSATA ports, as long as the USB power-sharing cable is also plugged in, as well as USB ports.
As for actual performance specifications, the Rugged eSATA boasts 500GB of storage space and a maximum speed of 90MB/s. This speed can only be reached when employing the Power eSATA, with the rate achieved when the USB connectivity speed is of at most 36MB/s.
"We are thrilled to integrate power eSATA technology into our best-selling Rugged mobile hard drive," Anne-Sophie Marchand, Consumer product manager, said. "This solution brings dazzling transfer speeds to customers on the go, while still ensuring compatibility with standard eSATA and USB 2.0 connectors."
The Rugged casing was developed by Neil Poulton, a graduate in Industrial Design from Edinburgh University and Milan's Domus Academy. He designs and develops best-selling and award-winning products for international clients such as LaCie and Artemide. The aluminum case is scratch resistant, has a shock-resistant rubber bumper and internal anti-shock absorbers.
Measuring 90 x 145 x 25 mm and weighing 239 grams, the LaCie Rugged eSATA is available at a price of $159 (excluding VAT) and is sold through LaCie's Online store, LaCie Reseller+ and the LaCie Storage Partner.