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CES: Verbatim Titan XS: Superportable USB 3.0 external drive

At CES, the company introduces a portable hard drive that's rugged and ultracompact.

Dong Ngo SF Labs Manager, Editor / Reviews
CNET editor Dong Ngo has been involved with technology since 2000, starting with testing gadgets and writing code for CNET Labs' benchmarks. He now manages CNET San Francisco Labs, reviews 3D printers, networking/storage devices, and also writes about other topics from online security to new gadgets and how technology impacts the life of people around the world.
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The new Titan XS portable hard drive from Verbatim.
The new Titan XS portable hard drive from Verbatim. Dong Ngo/CNET

LAS VEGAS--Just a day after Seagate announced what's arguably the most compact portable hard drive, the GoFlex Slim, the record is now broken by what Verbatim announced today, the Titan XS SuperSpeed USB 3.0.

While it's hard to put in numbers how much smaller the Titan XS is, I've seen them both and it is indeed smaller--though admittedly not by much.

The Titan XS is a rugged portable drive, though not nearly as rugged as the ioSafe Rugged Portable. Like the name suggests, it supports SuperSpeed USB 3.0 (5Gbps) and is housed in a shock-resistant rubber enclosure that protects against rough-and-tumble use. It includes Nero BackItUp & Burn software for full system backup and restore.

The new Titan XS is, like all USB 3.0 drives, backwards compatible with USB 2.0. It comes in a single capacity of 500GB. The drive is slated to be available in the first quarter. It's currently unclear how much it will cost.