Toshiba Reveals Canvio External HDD Series with USB 3.0 Interface

Japanese electronics giant Toshiba has just revealed the first bits of information on its new external HDD series. The new line will feature both 2.5” and 3.5” hard disk drives and will also make use of the new and speedy USB 3.0 interface.

We’re glad that the Japanese manufacturer has chosen to put Thunderbolt aside, as Intel’s connection technology is very expensive and would have raised the costs of the new Canvio drives by quite a lot.

Thunderbolt is usually needed when real transfer rates that go beyond the 600 MB/s mark can be achieved by what’s inside the external enclosure. Otherwise, USB 3.0 is just as capable and probably ten times cheaper.

The new Canvio series from Toshiba are slated for a late October launch, if we’re referring to the 2.5” models that will most likely be true Toshiba-made products, and a late November launch when 3.5” models are concerned.

The 3.5” external Canvio drives from Toshiba will reportedly ship with their own power charger and will most likely feature Western Digital drives that will be relabeled and manufactured under Toshiba’s brand.

Most of you might remember that Western Digital and Seagate have conveniently bought off all their competitors early last year and Toshiba was the only one left to “compete” with the two giants.

The Japanese manufacturer actually had no 3.5” manufacturing capacities, so the authorities have ordered Western Digital to sell off some of their patents and equipment so that Toshiba would be able to pose as a 3rd competitor in the global HDD business.

That move did not help the end user too much, as now we’re paying prices that are twice or even three times higher than what we were paying in 2011.

Therefore, the 3.5” drives we’re seeing from Toshiba right now are likely sharing many traits with some of WD’s HDDs.