Apricorn Aegis Mini 240GB - Netbook-friendly Storage Expansion Option

Aegis Mini series from Apricorn has been around since the debut of 1.8" hard drives. Toshiba looks like to be the sole supplier of the mini drives beginning as early as Apricorn ships the 20GB model. What makes the Aegis Mini somewhat special is that it runs on USB bus-power unlike some power hungry external hard drives. That's MacBook Air- and netbook-friendly. As 1.8" drives are also slimmer than what regular notebooks use, the Aegis Mini are more pocketable. Apricorn now picks up Toshiba's latest 240GB 1.8" that has been shipping late last year, and puts it into one of their mini-USB enclosure. The MSRP isn't pretty. At $269, the 240GB version is well over $1 per GB, and the warranty is a bit lacking. Good thing Apricorn offers $25 mail-in rebate which brings the price to $244, which still doesn't make us feel any better.