Labs

LaCie's desktop drives are designed by Neil Poulton, but for the Little Disk series it's turned to award-winning designer Sam Hecht, who's worked for Muji and Whirlpool. The end result? Another glossy black box.

This box, however, has a trick - a cover that pops off from one end to reveal two FireWire ports and a retractable USB cable. It's a very short cable, and you'll probably need to use the supplied USB extension, but it's still a bonus.

There's also an inconspicuous button

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recessed into the surface. By default, it launches LaCie's backup software, but, like the Maxtor, it's reprogrammable in software.

So far so good, but we have a few reservations about the design. There's no access light, which is a little disconcerting. And while the high-gloss case looks stylish, you'll have to keep it in the provided faux-velvet bag when carrying it around or it will quickly attract fingerprints and scuffs.

The plastic cover protects the ports from dust and clips on with a reassuringly firm snap, but while you're using the drive it's just clutter. And the word LaCie on the casing points towards the connectors, giving a back-to-front feel.

There are some practical issues to consider, too. The Little Disk was one of the slower drives in our multiple-file write test. And, while it's available in 120GB, 160GB and 250GB variants, whichever capacity you go for it's comparatively expensive. The integrated cable and a multipurpose shortcut button go some way towards justifying the cost, but we feel it isn't this month's most compelling package.