Review on Black WD 5TB My Passport Portable External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 and 2.0 Compatible (WDBPKJ0050BBK-WESN) by Carlos Macy

This model is the latest generation of many My Passport drives that I have owned or purchased for clients. They have proven to be reliable and powerful. With each new generation, they gradually improved. This model has a new body design which I think looks much better and a bit smaller than the previous version. CONCLUSION (for the impatient): This model is slightly faster than the last model (2016) I bought. I have the black 2TB model and this generation offers up to the 5TB model as well as the usual smaller capacities. This model is significantly faster than the previous generation in sequential reads and writes when I tested it with CrystalDiskMark. This My Passport features a new design that returns to rounded corners and a soft matte finish. I like it a lot more than the old one with its cheap (to me) style. The lens is slightly less thick, wider and longer than the 2016 model. In my laptop bag this is welcome, if not much less. I am very happy with this My Passport drive as well as the ones I have purchased over the past ten years. It's reliable, fast for a USB mechanical hard drive, and offers plenty of space at a great price. If you need more information, read on. REVIEW. My Passport USB 3.0 drives are easy to use and come with smart software and backup tools. synchronization software. Now they are in the same installer on the hard drive. I have my own backup solution and don't need encryption on this drive so I haven't looked at this software. If they are of interest, be sure to check the WD website for newer versions. Pros: + This drive works great with Windows, Linux or Mac. From Linux or Mac (where it is read-only with NTFS). They generally work best when reformatted to the appropriate operating system using the native file system. Mine was formatted to NTFS for Windows. This generation includes 5TB, 4TB, 2TB, and 1TB models. The 500GB models were dropped a few generations ago and the 3TB models more recently. + This drive is faster than the previous generation, but only marginally. About 3% faster in benchmarks, but barely noticeable in actual use.+ The new drive's form factor is lighter and slightly smaller than the previous drive, with a much nicer body with no jagged edges and a glossy finish that's prone to scratches/fingerprints . + Guarantee is valid. was reset from 2 years to 3 years from the 2016 generation. Cons: - It comes with the same very short USB 3.0 cable as previous versions. I like the longer 3ft (or more) USB 3.0 cable: a very good buy for upgrading My Passport drives. WHAT'S IN THE BOX: My Passport comes in an easy-to-open retail box containing the drive and an annoyingly short USB 3.0 cable. There are a few papers on the warranty and quick start. That's all. The cable in this model is the same as in previous versions. That might be fine for a lot of people, but I keep a few 3ft (or longer) USB 3.0 cables handy for longer connections to my desktop or even across a large computer. FORM FACTOR vs PREVIOUS GENERATION: I will be comparing the new generation My Passport to my 2016 My Passport UltraThis. : 0.37lb, 4.33" x 0.64" x 3.21" 2TB-4TB: 0.54lb, 4.33" x 0.85" x 3.21" TEST : I tested an old 2016 My Passport 4TB drive and a new 4TB My Passport model using the CrystalDiskMark reference software and copying the 11GB update folder and files to the drive. This was done to compare the reference to the real world copy. The 11GB folder contains a large number of files of different sizes and types, including DVD ISO image files larger than 2GB. Using CrystalDiskMark, I found sequential reads about 3% faster and writes about 8% faster on the new model. Random reading was slightly slower, and writing was about 8 times (!) faster. Although the tests in my real copy test showed significant differences in their usage, the difference was most noticeable with a large number of small files, but not as noticeable with large sequential read/write operations. If you need to burn small files, this drive is significantly better than the 2016 model and about the same for large files. For my testing, the My Passport drive was connected to the onboard USB 3.0 controller on my Dell 7710 Precision Mobile Workstation. I also tried this on an older Renasas USB 3.0 chipset expansion board on my Dell Precision T7500 tower. I installed the latest Renasas drivers. Both are running Windows 10 Pro Build 1903 and both have SATA SSD boot drives. I used the 64-bit version of CrystalDiskMark V7. CRYSTALDISKMARK Results: New Generation My Passport: Sequential Read (Q8T1): 129.18 MB/s Sequential Write (Q8T1): 119.75 MB/s Sequential Read (Q1T1): 120.37 MB/s Sequential Write (Q1T1 ): 118.08MB/s Random Read (Q32T16): 4KB 0.6MB/s Random Write (Q32T16): 4KB 10.8MB/s Random Read (Q1T1): 4KB 0.49MB/s Random Write (Q1T1): 4 KB 7.8 MB/s My Passport 2016: New generation My Passport: Sequential Read (Q8T1): 125.5 MB/s, Sequential Write (Q8T1): 113.7 MB/s, Sequential Read (Q1T1): 119.1 MB/s Sequential Write (Q1T1): 113.7 MB/s Random Read (Q32T16): 4 KB, 0.573 MB/s Random Write (Q32T16): 4 KB 1,290 MB/s. Random Read (Q1T1): 4KB 0.505MB/s. Random Write (Q1T1): 4KB 1.305MB/s. older than My Passport Ultra. More when writing than reading, and more noticeable on smaller files than large files. The top speed was around 70 MB/s for large files. I've never dropped below 35MB/s even copying a lot of small files to the hard drive. The 2016 My Passport Ultra peaked at around 68 MB/s and dropped to 30 MB/s a few times. I'm thinking the new drive might have a larger write cache on the drive, or maybe it's just a slightly faster drive. Maybe both. For large copies, the new My Passport can save you a few seconds here and there, but if you're copying a lot of small files to it, the difference is much more noticeable. CONCLUSIONS: I really enjoyed Western Digital's My Passport line of drives. and my customers. This reliable series with good to excellent performance has a long positive history with me. This WD My Passport is a further development of the 2016 My Passport. I choose it over the old model for new purchases, but I won't rush replacing old drives. I like this 2019 My Passport case with rounded corners more than the glossy 2016 case with sharp edges, but for me that's a very minor point. Overall it's a great evolution from its 5-star predecessor and still a very good choice for external storage. For improving small file write performance and fixing a case design issue from 2016, this new generation of 2019 My Passport drives deserves 5 stars in my opinion. Hope this helps someone!