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G-Technology G-Drive mobile USB-C review: G-Drive negotiates middle ground between storage capability and affordability

Get the G-Drive Mobile if you want a solid-performing USB-C drive, but don't want to pay SSD prices.

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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Dong Ngo

May 22, 2016 5:00 a.m. PT

2 min read

The G-Drive Mobile USB-C comes with two standard USB cables, permitting it to work with any computer on the market.
Dong Ngo/CNET

You know the new MacBooks that have a single USB-C port as the extent of their connection options? G-Tech's G-Drive Mobile USB-C portable drive was made for computers like those. Thankfully, G-Tech was thoughtful enough to pack it with two USB cables: one USB-C cable and one USB-C-to-USB-A cable that lets you use the drive with a non-USB-C computer.

7.0

G-Technology G-Drive mobile USB-C

The Good

The G-Drive Mobile has good performance and works with both USB-C and regular USB devices, right out the box.

The Bad

The drive's storage space caps at 1TB and it's significantly more expensive than other non-USB-C drives of the same capacity and storage type.

The Bottom Line

Get the G-Drive Mobile if you want a solid-performing USB-C drive, but don't want to pay SSD prices.

The $130 drive houses a normal laptop hard drive inside, so it's not as fast or as expensive as solid-state drives (SSDs) such as the Samsung Portable SSD T3 or the SanDisk Extreme 900 (each of these drives costs over $400 for 1TB). Still, there are better deals out there for non-USB-C drives; the WD My Passport Ultra costs just $125 for a whopping 3TB.

Out of the box, the G-Drive is preformatted in the HFS+ file system, which means it will work with Macs without any kind of setup. Like any portable drive, however, you can easily reformat it to work with Windows or any other operating system. There are three color options: space gray, gold and silver. Space gray and gold are available exclusively at Apple Stores.

CNET Labs high-speed USB portable drive performance

Samsung Portable SSD T1 158.3 292.42SanDisk Extreme 9000 Portable SSD (USB 3.1) 312.6 259.53Samsung Portable SSD T3 (USB 3.1) 311.1 240.91LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt All-Terrain 155.7 227.43Seagate Expansion 125.2 127.93G-Drive Mobile USB-C (USB 3.1) 109.9 125.75Buffalo MiniStation Extreme 110.3 118.82WD My Passport Ultra (Spring 2015) 110.2 117.34Seagate Slim 110.4 111.49WD My Password Slim 107.7 107.89WD Elements 95.7 102.15

Write
Read

Note: Measured in megabytes per second. Longer bars indicate better performance.

The drive supports the USB 3.1-gen one-speed standard and delivered a sustained copy speed of 110MBps for writing and 126MBps for reading, clearly slower than the more expensive Samsung or SanDisk SSDs, but still plenty fast for everyday activities like backups or movie playback. It doesn't include any backup software but both Windows 10 and

All things considered, if you're looking for an affordable USB-C portable drive, the new G-Drive Mobile USB-C is a relatively cheap alternative to SSD-based portable drives. Those looking for a non-USB-C portable drive should check out our list of best portable drives for more affordable options.

7.0

G-Technology G-Drive mobile USB-C

Score Breakdown

Setup 7Features 7Performance 7

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