Product Reviews

Freecom claims that this portable hard drive is the smallest in the world, and it's difficult to see how it could be wrong or indeed how a hard drive designed for external use could be any smaller.

The XXS is nothing more than a bare bones 2.5in hard drive - in this case a Samsung 160GB 5400rpm disk - sheathed in black rubber, with a solitary mini USB port on the back. The key to its diminutive size, aside from the lack of a hard case, is the fact that the USB port is hard-wired to the disk, so there's no bridge.

The drive is available in capacities of 160GB, 250GB and 320GB, and costs little more

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than a basic internal 2.5in disk. It ships with a 9cm USB cable, which means that even with the cable permanently attached, the device is compact enough to be thrown into a bag or, at a push, carried in a pocket. The short cable does, however, have its drawbacks. Plugging it into the back of an iMac or Mac Pro, for example, leaves it hanging. Thankfully, it worked when connected to, and drew power from, the USB 2 port on our iMac's keyboard.

In our tests, the XXS managed sustained transfer rates of between 20 and 24MB/sec. This compares with our iMac's internal hard drive, which scored between 64 and 70MB/sec, and a 2.5in portable FireWire drive, which scored 27 to 30MB/sec.

The Freecom Mobile Drive XXS falls between the multi-interface 500GB 2.5in drives now available, and high capacity USB sticks. Compared to the former, it's smaller, lighter, cheaper and more robust, while compared to the latter, it offers significantly more storage for a little more money. And unless you need 500GB of storage in your bag, or want to be able to carry a few gigabytes in your pocket, the XXS is ideal. It's small enough to be unobtrusive and easily portable, and offers excellent value for money.