We also named the Seagate Expansion Portable External Drive our Best Bang for Your Buck pick, since we love how no-frills it is, it carries the lowest price of any drive on our list, and has lighting fast speed.

We named the Western Digital My Passport our Best of the Best pick because it quite simply gets everything right - performance, looks, portability, security - all for an exceptional price. Narrowing it down to just the single best one is a tough job… but we're here to help! In the chart above, we laid out our 5 favorites so you can get right down to it if you don't feel like reading our in depth reviews. There are hundreds of portable external hard drives on the market, with new ones coming out each month. This is everything a portable drive should be… if it wasn't for the very hefty price tag! The choice for power users, the only SSD on our list offers supremely fast transfer rates. No bloated software to deal with, but you sacrifice a security option and longer warranty. Perfect for use with PS4 and Xbox One consoles. The most budget-friendly portable drive on this list, we love the simplicity of the Seagate Expansion. If you're a road warrior and take your data integrity seriously, the LaCie is the one for you. Pricier than the others, yet offers something the others don't - protection from bumps, spills, drops, and dust.

We lament the lack of security option, but otherwise this drive is well-built, speedy, and super thin. Best of the BestĪ close second place finish, this Seagate drive is the sleekest of the bunch. This drive is our top choice overall for its winning combination of performance, security, color options, and price, all from a very reliable brand.

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