Review on 💾 2TB Berry My Passport Ultra Portable External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - WDBBKD0020BBY-NESN by WD by Chris Horton

This model is a 2015 generation of My Passport drives that I own or have purchased for clients have. They have proven to be reliable and powerful. They gradually improved with each new generation. OVERALL (for the impatient): The new model is slightly faster than last year's, and 3TB and 4TB models have been added. This My Passport Ultra has a more attractive satin finish, and there's now a white model that better suits Mac users. Otherwise it is almost identical to the older model. If you don't care about those differences, you can buy either this year's or last year's My Passport Ultra, depending on which is cheaper. You're definitely gonna have a great ride A NOTICE. As of October 10, a new 2016 model appeared with (in my opinion) less attractive body, but a slightly faster drivetrain inside. Otherwise they are similar. If you need more information, read on. OVERVIEW: My Passport USB 3.0 drives are easy to use and come with smart software tools and backup/sync software. This disc contains Mac versions of the WD tools as well as Windows tools. Newer software can also be downloaded for older models. I don't use this software, but many people use it as a basic backup and/or sync with their WD MyPassport. Advantages: + This drive works great with Linux or Mac. It works best when reformatted with the native file system for the particular operating system. + This drive is faster than the previous generation. Up to 25% faster in benchmarks, but noticeable in practice.+ The new drive's form factor is almost the same as before, and it has a nice matte finish.+ The titanium color has been replaced with white. (never liked the titanium color) Cons: It comes with the same very short USB 3.0 cable as previous versions. This generation of My Passport Ultra drives does not include a drawstring pouch. Some protection for carrying drives. WHAT'S IN THE BOX: My Passport comes in an easy-to-open retail box, which includes the drive and an annoyingly short USB 3.0 cable. That's all. The cable in this model is the same as in previous versions. This was done to compare the reference to the real world copy. The 11GB folder contains a wide range of files of different sizes and types, including DVD ISO image files larger than 2GB. Using CrystalDiskMark, I found sequential reads about 25% faster and writes about 10% faster on the new model. Random reads were slightly faster, but writes were about 25% faster. While tests showed clear differences in practical use, the difference was noticeable but not huge. For my testing, the My Passport drive was connected to a Renasas USB 3.0 chipset on my Dell Precision E6500 laptop. I installed the latest Renasas drivers. The laptop also has a Samsung EVO SSD as a hard drive (important for my actual copy test). CRYSTALDISKMARK Results: New Generation My Passport: Sequential Read: 112.750 MB/s Sequential Write: 72.353 MB/s Random Read: 4 KB 0.584 MB/s [142.6 IOPS] Random Write: 4 KB 1.373 MB/s [335 .2 IOPS] Sequential Read: 110.736 MB/s Sequential Write: 70.680 MB/s Random Read: 4 KB 0.522 MB/s [127.4 IOPS] Random Write: 4 KB 1./s [327.1 IOPS] The older My Passport Slim: Sequential Read: 79,434 MB/s Sequential Write: 63.436 MB/s Random Read: 4 KB 0.525 MB/s [128.2 IOPS] Random Write: 4 KB 0.941 MB/s [229.7 IOPS] Sequential Read : 78.850 MB/s Sequential Write: 63.329 MB/s Random Read: 4 KB 0.493 MB/s [120, 4 IOPS] Random Write: 4 KB 0.861 MB/s [210.2 IOPS] REAL COPY: Test the new My Passport Ultra drive in the real world, it was just significantly faster than the older one. The top speed was around 60 MB/s for large files. I've never dropped below 29MB/s even copying a lot of small files to the hard drive. The older My Passport Slim peaked at around 55 MB/s and dropped to just over 25 MB/s a few times. I'm thinking the new drive may have a larger write cache on the drive, or maybe it's just a slightly faster drive. Maybe both. For larger copies, the new My Passport Ultra might save you a few seconds here or there, but your latest generation My Passport Ultra drives are pretty close. CONCLUSIONS. Western Digital's My Passport line of drives has been a hit with me and my customers. . This reliable series with good to excellent performance has a long positive history with me. This WD My Passport Ultra is the evolution of the latest generation. I will choose it over the old model for new purchases, but I won't rush replacing old drives. It's a 5-star successor to its 5-star predecessor and continues to be a very good choice for external storage. I will choose it over the old model for new purchases, but I won't rush replacing old drives. It's a 5-star successor to its 5-star predecessor and continues to be a very good choice for external storage. I will choose it over the old model for new purchases, but I won't rush replacing old drives. It's a 5-star successor to its 5-star predecessor and continues to be a very good choice for external storage.