Final Thoughts
When it comes down to it ADATA has a very solid product in the DashDrive Elite HE720 Portable Hard Drive. First lets talk about speed, gone are the days of slow USB 2.0 drives. Now that USB 3.0 is becoming more standard almost all new external hard drives have USB 3.0 connectivity. Having USB 3.0 with this drive means you are going to see around a 3x speed increase. That means your file transfers are going to go much faster. Now under the hood is a traditional hard drive not a solid state drive so there is a bottleneck there, but most users will not even notice it. If ADATA would have went with a solid state drive this drive would not be 500GB and would not be at the price point it is currently at.
If ADATA put this drive is a typical boring enclosure then it would be like every other portable USB 3.0 hard drive out there, but they definitely stepped it up a notch. The HE720 is housed in a stainless steel casing which look awesome. If you have the drive sitting on your desk it will definitely look great and maybe even get you some attention. Beyond that the casing has a 9H scratch resistance, which means that awesome finish will not get ruined. Although I did notice the drive was a fingerprint magnet. The HE720 not only looks great but is extremely small and thin, only 8.9mm thick! That means it can actually fit in your pocket!
The backup button and included software is a nice addition and allows you to easily hit one button and backup multiple folders at one time. Remember this drive does not require an external power source so all you have to do is plug it in and you are good to go. So besides the drive all you have to take with you is the USB 3.0 cable.
Right now the HE720 is selling at my favorite online retailer for $84.99. Overall ThinkComputers gives the ADATA DashDrive Elite HE720 500GB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive a 10 out of 10 score and our Recommended Award.
Pros:
– Small, thin design
– Stainless steel casing
– USB 3.0
– Does not require external power
Cons:
– None that I found
