Verbatim has just announced a new portable hard-disk drive offering in its SmartDrive lineup. The device is touted as the world's first half-Terabyte disk drive in a portable form factor, although we have already seen LaCie's rugged device packing the same storage capacity. The 500GB SmartDisk portable hard drive is 9.5mm tall and can work in both PC and Mac environments.

The mobile storage solution is comprised of a 2.5-inch hard disk drive, encased in a protective cover measuring 8.58 x 13.6 x 1.6 centimeters. The 170 gram drive is built using Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR) technology and spins at 5400 rotations per minute.

The rugged case hides three magnetic platters of 166GB each for a total of 498GB effective storage space. The drive comes with 8MB of cache memory and can be connected to the host computer via either USB or FireWire-400 ports. Moreover, the 5400 RPM speed allows the drive to draw its power directly from the USB / FireWire bus, which eliminates the need for an additional power adapter.

"Being able to add half a Terabyte of storage to a PC or Mac with such a small, easy to carry device is a new milestone in the portable storage industry", said Charles Klinker, Verbatim Director of Marketing for SmartDisk products. "Imagine the convenience of being able to store, transport and backup all of your digital content without having to span disks or carry multiple storage solutions", he continued.

According to Verbatim, the new portable storage solution supports the Mac OS X "Leopard" Time Machine feature for hassle-free backup via the bundled software applications. The BounceBack Express utility can perform scheduled or manual backups and unlocks a quick restore feature that minimizes the downtime for crashes or virus infections.

Just like any other product in the SmartDisk family, the 500GB version will come with a choice of a USB connector or a combo FireWire/USB interface. The FireWire/USB model allows users to transfer files between a Mac and a PC at data rates of up to 480MB per second. However, when used in FireWire mode, the drive will require an external power source.

The drive will be available later this quarter at an estimative price of $300 for the USB version. The FireWire/USB combo version has not been priced yet.