A discreet and petite drive, but poor
performance lets it down
Buffalo’s MiniStation Slim is a wonderfully
petite external hard disk. It’s just 8.8mm thick and Buffalo claims it’s the
world’s thinnest external drive.
The MiniStation Slim is pretty, too. Our
review unit’s aluminum chassis had a classy matt black finish; Buffalo also
manufactures the drive in red and metallic grey. The MiniStation feels
surprisingly sturdy for a device so small, with no perceivable flex in its
panels. There’s no superfluous detailing either – just a USB3 port and a small
activity light on the rear panel. It weighs 140g, making it easily portable,
and we’re confident it can withstand the rigours of daily use.
Buffalo’s
MiniStation Slim is a wonderfully petite external hard disk
Sadly, the MiniStation Slim’s good looks
and slim profile are let down by its file transfer speeds, especially when
compared with Seagate’s Wireless Plus 1TB, which can also connect to tablets
and smartphones over Wi-Fi. The Buffalo drive’s write benchmark result of
28MB/s pales in comparison to the Seagate Wireless Plus’s 100MB/s, and its
32MB/s score is a long way behind the Wireless Plus’s 109MB/s.
It
weighs 140g, making it easily portable
It’s not quicker when handling small files.
The Slim wrote and read small files at 12.6MB/s and 21MB/s respectively,
scoring 16.6MB/s overall. The Wireless Plus scored 30MB/s and 45MB/s
respectively in the same tests.
This slow performance can partially be
explained by the drive used within the MiniStation Slim. Buffalo wouldn’t
confirm the exact drive used, but the firm narrowed it down to two options:
Seagate’s Momentus Thin and Western Digital’s Scorpio Blue. They’re both mobile
21/2in drives, and neither has a thrilling specification.
Both spin at the slower 5,400rpm speed; the Momentus has 16MB of cache and the
Scorpio makes do with half that amount.
The Buffalo MiniStation Slim currently
costs $80 including VAT, which translates to 9.4p per gigabyte. Seagate’s
Wireless Plus, currently $255 including VAT, costs 17p per gigabyte. Other slim
drives, such as Samsung’s M3 1TB cost a similar amount, making the 500GB
MiniStation Slim seem poor value.
This
slow performance can partially be explained by the drive used within the
MiniStation Slim.
We like the design and build quality of the
MiniStation Slim, but the benchmark results and comparatively high cost per
gigabyte mean we can’t recommend it. With only a few millimeters between this
drive and rivals that are cheaper and sure to be quicker, you’d be better off
buying any number of alternatives.
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Specifications
§
Price: $80
§
Ratings: 2/5
§
Web: www.systo.co.uk
§
Capacity: 500GB
§
Formatted capacity (NTFS): 465GB
§
Interface: USB3
§
Spindle speed: 5400rpm
§
Warranty: Three-year RTB
§
Part code: HD-PUS500U3-EU
§ Details:
www.buffalo-technology.com
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