Light portable drive: Samsung S2 Portable (640GB, USB 2.0)?

[burbly]

A friend of mine is looking to buy a light portable hard drive of his father can use to store many large photos on while travelling. (I think they're in some raw format, so they take much more space than those out of a typical camera.) I've had a search around and it seems like the Samsung S2 Portable (640GB, USB 2.0) is a good choice... it's apparently light (170 g), small and has a decent storage capacity. But I have no actual experience with this (and know much less about hardware then you all), so I thought I would ask for advice before recommending that he buy it. Oh, if there was anything similar but with a larger storage capacity out there, that would be even better...

Thanks,
Mohan

 

[Ubrales]

Mohan, you picked a good ext. portable drive. The 640 GB version will hold about 8,000 photos in RAW format; plenty of storage capacity.

Personally, I would go for the USB 2.0 version rather than the USB 3.0 version. (USB 3 is newer, faster, and not as common as USB 2).

Here is a review on the drive: http://reviews.cnet.com/laptop-hard-drives/samsung-s2-640gb-red/4505-9997_7-33857964.html#reviewPage1

Keep in mind that this Samsung ext. drive does not have a power adapter, and draws its power from the USB port. This will cause the laptop battery to discharge quicker. When the laptop is used with the charger plugged in (AC power) it will be fine.

Here are similar products: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=40000414&IsNodeId=1&Description=external%20drives%201tb&name=External%20Hard%20Drives&Order=BESTMATCH

Quite a bit of reading material to keep you well informed.

 

[burbly]

Thank you!