14 DAY TRIAL // Hitachi Global Storage Technology used to release hard disk drives very often even before it was bought by Western Digital and became HGST. So it's no shock at all to hear that a new range of drives has made it to the market under that brand.
What might take people by surprise is the combination of specifications and features, especially in regard to platter speed.
Despite that the new Touro S units are 2.5-inch HDDs optimized for portability, they still manage to spin their platters at 7,200 RPM (rotations per minute).
Normal HDDs, especially portable/mobile ones, run at 5,400 RPM, but HGST decided that the 23% speed gain will offset the extra price.
As people may have guessed, the new HDDs have 2 platters, otherwise the 1 TB capacity would not be possible.
Specifically, there are two drives in the Touro S, one with 500 GB (fairly normal, all told) and one in 1 TB. The prices are of $99.95 / €99.95 and $79.95 / €79.95, respectively.
HGST Touro-S HDDs are colored gold, silver, ruby and platinum (though the cases are always made of aluminum) and ship with 3 GB of Touro Cloud Backup for free, upgradeable to 250 GB for $59 / €43 per year.