WD My Passport USB Drive Gets Native USB Interface Also

Following the footsteps of hassle-free backup options such as the Apple Time Machine and Seagate Replica, Western Digital has debuted a new line of My Passport external drives shipping with its SmartWare and 256-bit hardware encryption as standard feature. The SmartWare while not particularly exciting is essentially a software suite that not only does incremental backup but also presents a visual display of your backup in categories so you know what kind of files is taking up all the precious drive space.

What is newsworthy about the My Passport is the direct integration of USB interface to the 2.5" drive. This bypasses the USB-to-SATA bridge like the Samsung S2 so you can expect performance bump, and the removal of the bridge makes the drive even more compact (a mere 0.6" in thickness). The new My Passport SE offers capacities in 750GB and 1TB with 250GB, 320GB, 500GB, and 640GB in the Essential series. It's pity that Western Digital only gives us 2 years of warranty for the My Passport while the competitors are stepping up with 5 years of warranty.