Labs

As the name suggests, the Iomega Red eGo is one of the brightest products on review this month. Its curvy casing, in shiny chrome and deep powder red, carries overtones of fast cars with just a hint of the boudoir. It's a drive that demands to be put on display.

However, beneath the glitz it's an unremarkable drive, with its test scores placing it among this month's slower drives. Not only that, it's uninspiring in terms of features as well. There

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are no bells or whistles such as programmable buttons or multicoloured disk access lights. In fact, not only is the access indicator single-colour, it's hidden away at the back of the unit, so you can't even see it in normal use. Not exactly a design triumph.

Given its rather rudimentary feature set, it's a shock to discover that the eGo costs over £100. It is a portable 250GB unit, of course, so a certain price premium is to be expected. But Toshiba's 250GB drive takes advantage of its high capacity to deliver the lowest cost per gigabyte. The eGo, conversely, works out as the worst deal here (among the portable drives) in terms of pure storage, costing more per gigabyte than even the 120GB units.

Of course, you don't buy a drive like this purely for the storage. It is a thing of beauty, and if price isn't a factor it's tempting to overlook its shortcomings and just enjoy its looks. However, once the glamour wears thin, you'll be left with a drive that's slower than the Toshiba and the Maxtor, and less well equipped.