LaCie launches 'the first' external hard drive with a 'Power eSATA interface'

The rugged, orange hard drive has a capacity of 500GB and costs $159.99 / £129.99

The familiar colorful LaCie design

The box contains all the right cables

On the 11^th of February LaCie announced its Rugged eSATA Hard Disk, which is 'the first mobile external hard drive on the market that features a Power eSATA interface.” LaCie is selling the drive directly from its US website for $159.99, and from its UK website for £129.99.

The drive has a capacity of 500GB, a read seek time of less than 15.5ms and spins at 7200rpm. It's a very portable device, weighing only 293g and is under an inch thick. The chunky orange design compliments the drive's tiny size well, and provides reasonable protection from knocks and bumps. According to LaCie, the drive should withstand being dropped from just over seven feet when switched off; the company doesn't mention the drive's shock resistance when switched on.

LaCie states that its new drive has the following data transfer rate: 'USB2.0: up to 36MB/s; eSATA: up to 90MB/s'. Although eSATA is a faster interface than USB2.0, one downside is that eSATA devices require their own power supply. However, this drive has three possible power sources: via the AC adaptor, the USB power-sharing cable or via a powered eSATA port (USB/eSATA combination port). Fortunately LaCie supplies customers with cables for each of the aforementioned options.

Specifications