Seagate Backup Plus Hub (8TB) : Massive, fast external hard drive

It’s the only route to double-digit terabytes at an affordable price point.

- JON L. JACOBI

So why on earth, in this day of uber-fast portable SSDs and fast-enough, readily portable 2.5-inch hard drives, would anyone want to purchase a 3.5-inch external hard drive such as Seagate’s Backup Plus Hub? You sacrifice some portability, but the upsides are significant: nearly three times the capacity and faster sustained throughput than 2.5-inch models offer.

Seagate’s Backup Plus Hub comes in flavors from 4TB to 14TB. The 8TB version I tested is currently about $217 on Amazon. By comparison, portable 2.5-inch hard drives, while equally affordable, are currently limited to 5TB. Portable SSDs max out at 8TB (go. pcworld.commx8t), but only if you’re willing to shell out a cool $2,000. Ouch!

DESIGN AND SPECS

Sporting a 3.5-inch hard drive and an AC adapter, the Backup Plus Hub is hefty, weighing about three pounds and measuring around 4.75 by 7.75 by 1.5 inches. No, it’s not going to fit in your pocket. Backpack, yes, briefcase, maybe.

The reason this particular Backup Plus model includes ‘Hub’ in its moniker is that it sports fully functional dual USB Type-A ports on the front. Seagate rightly figures that if you’re going to have something large on your desk that requires a power cord, you might as well put the extra juice to work.

When I first opened the box, I was half-expecting charge-only functionality, but you can plug anything you want into the USB port, including additional storage devices. Nice. On the back of the enclosure are the AC adapter jack and a Micro-B USB port. A Type-A to Micro-B cable is included.