Western Digital My Passport Essential 250GB Portable Hard Drive
WDME2500 - 250GB USB 2.o Portable External Hard Drive from Western Digital
Western Digital My Passport Essential is a part of the Western Digital’s My Passport family which also includes the My Passport Elite series. The Elite series has external hard drives that had more of protective security features like encryption which is a must for those who are maintaining secretive official data. The My Passport Essential series is basically for home and consumer usage whose major goal is to just have a backup of their large amount of data safe.
Notebook sized:
Having the size of only a notebook, the My Passport Essential 250GB (WDME2500) Portable Hard drive itself depicts its portability. They fit very conveniently in to your pockets and hand bags. The design of the Essential is almost same as that of the Elite. It has the same kind of drive inside and almost the same basic shape, the only major difference that we could actually find is that, its finishing is a glossy plastic one along with some hi-end device like touches. This portable unit is having its dimensions as, 0.59” x 3.1” x 4.967” (H X W X D) inches and weighs just 0.18kgs. The light weighed slim profile of the drive gives it an incredible title of ultra portability. Though the Essential’s cover is made out of plastic, it is having a sturdy built without any flexes and there are four small rubber fleets provided to make sure that the drive does not slips away from the angled desktops.
Architecture:
Western Digital has offered an irresistible selection of about eleven colours ranging from black to yellow to turquoise, which is made possible because of the plastic kind of a finish given to the model. But one thing that is a greatest disadvantage of having a glossy plastic finishing is that, the drive will be prone to fingerprints, smudges and scratches. However, we do not think that this will be of much concern to the buyers. And another thing that Essential has not adopted from Elite is the sliding port cover and also is not having the rubber cover that was available in the previous versions of the passport, rather here, the mini USB port is left simply exposed. The capacity gauge and the status lighting that can be seen in Elite have also been left out in the My Passport Essential 250GB USB 2.0 external hard drive. Instead of the array of status lighting, here, they have a single illuminated USB LED that burns blue when the device is connected and is communicating with the PC. We would have loved to see the capacity gauge in Essential also as it was one of the nice features that lets you know in just a glance that how much of free space is available in the external hard drive.
Finally, when not in use, the entire Essential package is easily tucked away into a convenient neoprene zippered case, complete with a spot for the USB cable.
Applications and capacities available:
The My Passport Essential 250GB portable hard drive’s applications include storing or backing up digital videos, music and photos, carrying important files and mailing between work place and home or on a drive while keeping them in a sync and sharing large files between home and office between the PC and Mac systems.
Western Digital My Passport Essential is available in five capacities which includes 160, 250, 320, 400 and 500GB.
Set-up:
When you connect the device for the first time into your PC, the My Passport Essential 250GB’s software installation page appears. The installations can be done very easily as the interface is very attractive, simple and is just an easy to navigate auto run screen.
Software bundle included:
Western Digital My Passport Essential 250GB is compatible with both Windows and Mac OS. In case you are using a Mac exclusive environment, an appropriate version is available for you, known as Passport studio. The Essential external hard drive comes with software bundle that includes WD Sync, Copy Application Software and Google Software. The WD Sync is a synchronization and encryption software that enables the synchronization of your data between different computers using the Passport Essential. It also protects your data on the Essential with 128-bit encryption. The WD Sync interface is very user-friendly in terms of layout and content, it quickly creates a profile and password. This application allows you to include a section to fill in your personal information which is viewable without the use of a password. The options section allows you to select what you can select to sync between your PC and the external hard drive. You can even synchronise your desktop’s wall paper, so that it is visible while using WD sync on any other PC. With the help of advanced settings, you will be able to sync even the directories, sub-directories and even file extensions.
Copy Application Software allows you back up the software included in the Passport Essential. Google Software includes the entire suite of web browser tools and other utilities provided by Google. This allows you to install a host of Google Software applications directly from the device itself. Some of the consumers might consider this as crapware, but we appreciate the instant and swift access to Google Toolbar, Picasa, and Google Desktop on a fresh hard drive. Elite’s Anywhere backup application is not provided with Essential. Though it is a good feature, the absence of this feature is certainly not going to stop the potential buyers.
Features and performance:
My Passport Essential 250GB Compact Hard Drive has a spindle speed of 5400 Rotations Per Minute. The connectivity is done through the mini USB2.0 port. The data transfer rate of this external hard drive is 480Mbps. The speed of the drive is a little slower than that of the Buffalo Ministation , Maxtor One Touch and LaCie Little Disk. Since the difference is very little, it is acceptable. The overall performance of Passport Essential is very impressive and is also having a very good internal unit transfer rate. There is no lag in the portable drive compared to the internal drive even while handling graphics and video files. It had an average read/write speed performing in par with Toshiba portable hard drives. The unit is powered entirely by the USB connection. This single cable is very easy to tote around.
Control of heat dissipation and noise:
Passport Essential manages to control heat dissipation in an efficient manner and working for around one hour, was only warm at the most. Hence, proving that it is no less in this feature when compared to its Elite counterpart. The plastic case proves to be an excellent noise insulator and hence no noise. Hereby, Passport Essential has responded in a great manner to the performance factors.
Box contents and warranty:
The box contents include the Western Digital My Passport Essential 250GB portable hard drive, USB2.0 cable and a quick install guide. An optional cable is available for few PCs that limit power from USB port. My Passport Essential comes with a warranty of 3 years.
Conclusion:
My Passport Essential 250GB USB 2.0 Hard Drive has a sleek casing, solid built quality, reasonable speed and tons of storage space, all of which continues to keep this 2.5” portable hard drive very popular. The software provided are very useful. The added ability to sync email account information, internet browser favourites and even your desktop wallpaper is welcoming. Its performance is on par with WD My Passport Elite with the pricing much lesser, it is a great option for all your large storage needs.
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Western Digital My Passport Essential 250GB - Technical Specifications, Features
| Manufacturer | Western Digital |
| Model Name | My Passport Essential |
| Model number | WDME2500 |
| Dimensions ( H x W x D) | 0.59″ x 3.1″ x 4.967″ |
| Form factor | 2.5″ |
| Capacity | 250GB |
| Available Colours | midnight black, real red, intense blue, vibrant pink, raindrop blue, arctic white, viola, super sunny yellow, brilliant orange, ultra mint, cherry red and cool silver |
| Weight | 0.18kg |
| Spindle speed | 5,400 RPM |
| Compatibility | Mac and PC |
| Interface | USB 2.0 |
| Bus transfer rate | 480 MB/sec |
| Power source | USB bus |
| Warranty | Three years |
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