Seagate Backup Plus Slim

Seagate is one of those with product lines like the BarraCuda most popular manufacturers of hard drives. In this review we test with the Seagate Backup Plus Slim an elegant one available in five colors external hard drive heart and soul. Can the device assert itself against the fast SSD competition?

Nicely done

The Seagate Backup Plus Slim looks well made and modern. As mentioned, the device is available in different colors, including black, white, blue, silver and the red we used. The external hard drive weighs 124 grams and measures 11,1 x 7,4 x 1,2 centimeters. This puts the device in the middle for both points. In terms of mobility, these values ​​also mean that the Seagate hard drive is the smallest and lightest HDD in comparison. It fits in most trouser pockets and doesn't get in the way. The SSD competition is still significantly smaller and lighter. There is a white status LED on the top of the Seagate Backup Plus Slim.

The sides of the hard drive have a gloss finish and are therefore prone to dirt and scratches. The underside is rubberized and therefore non-slip. The included USB 3.0 Cable is 47 centimeters long. In terms of workmanship and mobility, you can be absolutely satisfied with the device. 

Weak performance values

We use the CrystalDiskMark program to check the speed of the Seagate Backup Plus Slim. This records the read and write speeds. More on this in our detailed external hard drives Comparison. The Seagate Backup Plus Slim does poorly here. Although the device is USB 3.0 capable, the hard drive achieves the lowest rates in our comparison. With 94,8 MB/s reading and 63,75 MB/s writing, it is more than 30 MB/s below the next HDD in the test, the Transcend StoreJet. The difference to the SSDs is logically even greater. The Seagate disk only achieves a scarce sixth of the performance here. This is very weak and inexplicable. Such a well-known manufacturer should at least be in the range of the competition. But above all it lies in writing Toshiba Canvio Basics over twice the performance value. We don't understand why the Backup Slim Plus achieves such a poor performance.

One could now discuss whether the data rates achieved are not sufficient for most users. And we would agree, the average user probably doesn't care whether the transfer of his pictures takes one or ten minutes. The fact is, however, that the Seagate is not even the cheapest hard drive in comparison. Actually, you can end the test here and refer to the other devices. However, we still have a few other items on the list. For example the access time. It determines how long a disk takes to start a requested read or write operation. Due to the mechanical structure of HDDs, classic hard drives must be behind the flash memory. The Seagate Backup Slim Plus achieves an access speed of 24,08 milliseconds and thus occupies last place, behind the Toshiba Canvio Basics with 23,53 milliseconds.

Bright spot capacity

So far, the Seagate Backup Plus Slim has not been convincing at all. However, we now come to the big advantage of mechanical hard drives: the price per gigabyte. Seagate can really score here, especially in comparison to the expensive SSDs. One gigabyte currently costs just under 6 cents. At Samsung and Western Digital and their solid state hard drives you pay 35,9 and 49 cents respectively. A huge difference that will make all the difference for many users on a budget. If you go directly to the largest variant with 5 terabytes, you can even pay less than 3 cents per gigabyte. Values ​​that flash memory customers can only dream of.

Conclusion on the Seagate Backup Plus Slim

We are aware that Seagate, as a particularly popular manufacturer, did not fare well in this test. However, you have to stick to the numbers and then you can see that the other devices offer significantly more performance. Despite the attractive design, the decent workmanship and the choice of colors, we cannot recommend the Seagate Backup Plus Slim. You can find more information about this and a precise purchase recommendation in the comparison.