Western Digital Unveils World's Highest Capacity 2.5" Portable HDDs

[GFreeman]

With the explosion of digital content, people need bigger and more robust solutions to help access and preserve it all. Western Digital today is introducing a portable HDD expansion across its WD, WD_BLACK and SanDisk Professional product lineups, boasting the world's highest storage capacity in a 2.5" portable HDD. The WD My Passport portable HDD line, WD_BLACK P10 Game Drive and SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE ArmorATD will all now be available in 6 TB capacities.

"Expanding our portfolio with the world's first 2.5" 6 TB portable hard drive is an incredible technological achievement, and it enables us to continue pushing the boundaries of what's possible," said Nitin Kachhwaha, Director of Product Management at Western Digital. "Offering up to 6 TB in such a small form factor and accessible price point gives everyone - from students, gamers, professional videographers, and more—greater flexibility to create and keep even more of their essential content in one portable drive."



The new, record-breaking 6 TB capacity point is now available across Western Digital's premier brands, offering a more robust, purpose-built solution for consumers, gamers and pros:

Confidently Back Up Your Next Journey with WD
With up to 6 TB capacities now available for the WD My Passport hard drive line, adventurers can store more and effortlessly backup their digital memories with peace of mind. The My Passport Ultra drive is a trusted, portable storage solution that is equipped with USB-C technology and a modern metal design. It is ready right out of the box and features a convenient, slim form factor that is easily transportable. Its password protection with 256-bit AES hardware encryption helps keep precious content safe and secure. The My Passport hard drives are available in a variety of different colors to suit any style.

The 6 TB WD My Passport Ultra and 6 TB WD My Passport Ultra for Mac both retail for $199.99 MSRP. The 6 TB WD My Passport and WD My Passport for Mac both retail for $179.99 MSRP. The 6 TB WD My Passport, Works with USB-C retails for $184.99 MSRP. All products are available now at select Western Digital retailers, e-tailers and on the Western Digital Store.

Enhancing Your Competitive Edge in Gaming with WD_BLACK
The WD_BLACK P10 Game Drive allows gamers to furnish their console or PC with performance-enhancing tools to keep up with the pace of today's complex AAA titles. With the 6 TB capacities now available that can store up to 150 games, the drive is built for players looking to upgrade the storage of their console or PC and enjoy gaming without having to compromise which games to delete or updates to forgo to make room for new titles.

The 6 TB WD_BLACK P10 Game Drive retails for $184.99 MSRP. The drive is available now at select Western Digital retailers, e-tailers and on the Western Digital Store.

Get the Perfect Shot with SanDisk Professional
With SanDisk Professional's G-DRIVE ArmorATD drive, consumers get an all-terrain drive with shock, IP54 rain and dust, and crush resistance to help protect valuable footage from out in the wild to back in the studio. The 6 TB SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE ArmorATD provides a trusted and portable way to back up photos, video footage and files wherever adventure leads.

The 6 TB SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE ArmorATD retails for $229.99 MSRP. The drive will be available by the end of this month at select Western Digital retailers, e-tailers and on the Western Digital Store.

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[hsew]

Why though? 4TB SSDs are now becoming affordable AND available in much smaller form factors if desired.

 

[efikkan]

Why though? 4TB SSDs are now becoming affordable AND available in much smaller form factors if desired.

Harddrives are much more reliable for long-term storage and also less prone to data rot (SSDs needs to be powered up to be refreshed). If you want offline backup (either onsite or offsite), HDDs are often the best option, and external drives are commonly used. "Cheap" consumer flash especially is very low quality, and not suited for long term storage, and this is only getting worse with QLC and on.

The bigger question is why 2.5" drives though. The only reason I see why it being preferred would be for travel (e.g. backing up your photos on a trip), as the 3.5" are much more reliable if the size isn't a problem. The larger drives are also much more cost efficient, even >20 TB are affordable, so if you need to backup all your data, a couple of these isn't going to set you back a lot. But probably the best option is going for an external HDD case and buying a WD Gold drive to put in there.

 

[AGlezB]

My first question was: What's a Logitec G product doing in a WD lineup?
That G is going to confuse a lot of people.

 

[Crackong]

6TB hdd for $180, end of story

 

[Bwaze]

Why though? 4TB SSDs are now becoming affordable AND available in much smaller form factors if desired.

4TB SSDs were becoming affordable last year. You could get one for 150 EUR, and now for quite some time the same drives cost 250 EUR. And it doesn't look like it's temporary.

That's modern progress for you now.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Why though? 4TB SSDs are now becoming affordable

Not THAT affordable, unless you consider $350+ reasonable. (hint it is not) This assumes a reasonable quality brand and drive. Cheap crap, sure, you can get a 4TB and an external enclosure for about $225 at best. But then you still only have 4TB, when we can get a 6TB drive for $180.

 

[Bwaze]

Years ago, when SSDs were doubling their maximum capacity every two years we had charts showing when exactly SSDs will achieve parity with HDDs in terms of cost per TB and in terms of maximum capacity. Then the end of SATA happened in 2020, and it threw all predictions away, in the past 4 years we saw basically no increase in maximum available capacity in consumer sector, and for the last couple of months we even saw regression, with companies offering new models with lower maximum capacity than the previous generation. And although price per TB was falling, the unprecedented increase in price since fall of 2023 doesn't show any sign of going away, again rendering all predictions invalid.