Seagate Freeagent Go 500GB review

The appearance of the Freeagent Go series of portable USB hard disks hasn't changed much since we last saw one a year ago. The 500GB model still has the same slender grey and white appearance of its processors with a spiral pattern at the front which lights up and acts as an activity indicator. Build quality is by no means flimsy, but the plastic case doesn't feel nearly as rigid as other portable disks we've seen.

The Freeagent Go uses a standard miniUSB cable, but Seagate also sells an optional docking station for an extra £13. We're not convinced it's worth paying for though - apart from looking nice it doesn't have any advantages over an extra miniUSB cable that costs just £5.

Seagate bundles its Manager backup program with the Freeagent Go. It can back up your files automatically according to a schedule and can keep your backed up files from prying eyes by encrypting them. It can also save time by backing up only files which have been modified since the last back up. Handily, it supports versioned backups, so it can keep older versions of your files in case you make changes to a file that you wish you hadn't.

There weren't any surprises in our benchmarks with large files written at 26.1MB/s and read at 27.7MB/s. Small files were written at 23.5MB/s and read at just under 18MB/s. These speeds are in line with what we'd expect from a portable USB2 disk.

Like other Seagate disks, but unlike most external USB hard disks, the Freeagent Go has a long five-year warranty. In the event of a fault you have to send the disk back to Seagate (just as with other manufacturers), but it's still reassuring.

At 15p per gigabyte the Go is a good disk with useful software and quick performance. It struggles to stand out against the competition which cost a bit less but have more rugged designs. Unless you're swayed by the warranty, there are more appealing portable disks available.