Freecom Hard Drive XS 3.0 1TB review

Freecom’s XS drives are, if it isn’t an oxymoron, ostentatiously low key. Here you’ll find neither access lights nor switches – indeed, but for a little tag at the side identifying the manufacturer, it’s a featureless slab.

What makes the drive conspicuous is that it’s encased in sleek, fetish-grade rubber. It’s eminently strokable, and while it may not exactly blend in on the typical desktop, it certainly adds a note of character.

Unfortunately, in our tests the 1TB drive didn’t quite walk the walk. In three of our four exercises it proved slow by USB 3 standards, with a dismal write rate of 19MB/sec in our small file test that's slower than most portable drives. Large file reads of 102MB/sec were low by desktop standards too. On the upside, its 91MB/sec large file write speed is above average for a drive of this type.

The simplicity of the design also keeps the price down, and there’s not a penny wasted on accessories or freebie software. That means the 1TB XS 3.0 comes in at just 8.4p per gigabyte, making it the most economical desktop drive we've seen in this capacity.

If you’re into bells and whistles the monolithic design of the Freecom Hard Drive XS 3.0 won’t appeal, and its laid back performance does it no favours – after all, the whole point of a USB 3 drive is speed, right? Still, it’s an affordable option that certainly stands out from the crowd.

Author: Darien Graham-Smith