Its nice to always have an external hard drive with you, but its clear that none will want to carry large 3.5-inch external hard drives with them on a daily basis. A 1.8-inch hard drive on the other hand is much smaller and easier to carry around everywhere you go. Thats why Gadgetine.com reviews the very compact Xigmatek Lighter series external hard drive with 60 GB capacity which is much more compact than a even a conventional computer mouse.
Theres not much to say about the design of an external HDD – Xigmatek Lighter is available in three different colors: white, black and pink. As you can see in the photos which are provided with our review, we chose to take a closer look at the black and white models of this external hard disk drive. Of course the only difference of these two disks is their color.
The Xigmatek Lighter is designed to look like a real lighter, and also the size of this hard drive is similiar to the size of standard Zippo lighters. There is a USB port located at the top of the left side of the hard disk though, reminding you that this storage is designed for storing data, not lighting cigarettes.
“Xigmatek Lighter” is 60%+ more shock tolerant, 50%+ smaller, 50%+ lighter and 50%+ more energy efficient than conventional 2,5-inch external HDDs.
Even when the hard disk is placed into the included leather purse, it still can without any problems be inserted in for example the front pocket of a shirt. The standard package, of course, also includes a USB cable.
Performance
After connecting the Xigmatek Lighter to a computer, a blue LED lights up. To find out how this HDD performs, we carried out three repetitive tests with “HD Tune 3.50″ hard disk drive testing software.
The average test results were as follows:
The minimum read speed – 10.33 MB/s, the maximum read speed – 21.96 MB/s, the average read speed – 17.9 MB/s.
The minimum write speed – 10.16 MB/s, the maximum write speed – 21.63 MB/s, the average write speed – 17.63 MB/s.
Average disk access times duringe these tests were 19.03 ms (while performing read tests) and 19.46 ms (during write tests).
As we can clearly see, the data read and write speeds are very similar. Usually the data read speed is well above the write speed, but this time they are almost identical. By the way we were surprised by how quiet this HDD was during the test.
You should understand that “Xigmatek Lighter” is slower than the 3.5-inch hard drives and also a little slower than many 2.5-inch external hard drives, but its performance is acceptable, especially taking into account the compact size. However, the speed of this hard drive surpasses many USB flash memory drives.
Conclusions
“Xigmatek Lighter” is a stylish hard drive, which offers not only a compact size, but also a large 60 GB capacity for a good values, as well as an increased resistance to shocks, which is a very important quality for an external hard disk drive.
Pros:
+ Compact size (also suitable for travel);
+ Quiet;
+ High shock tolerance;
+ Stylish design, package includes a special pouch;
+ Good value;
Cons:
- Xigmatek Lighter is less durable than a flash memory;
- Slightly slower than 2.5 and 3.5-inch hard drives;
You can buy Xigmatek Lighter from NewEGG.com
