Thursday, September 23, 2004
Mobile Data on the Go: The Iogear 2.5" Firewire/USB Hard Drive Case
Posted by Jason Dunn in "HARDWARE" @ 09:00 AM
Figure 8: Curiously enough, the Iogear unit appears to have a…belt clip? I can't imagine what else this would be for, yet I have difficulty imagining a scenario where someone would clip this to their belt. Perhaps if the cables were integrated…
Figure 9: On the left we have the cables required for use with the Iogear unit. On the right we have the actual drive in its leather case.
Figure 10: The Iogear unit with the replacement cables – one for USB power, one for USB connectivity.
Conclusion
The Iogear enclosure is small, stylish, and very high quality. But Iogear decimates the effectiveness of this unit by burdening the user with an unacceptable amount of adaptors and cables. The key factor for a drive enclosure like this is mobility – if the user wants an external hard drive for their desktop computer, they'll buy a larger, faster, less expensive 3.5" drive. I've seen 2.5" portable drive enclosures that have a single USB cable for both power and connectivity, and the cable was even integrated into the unit, making it a true one-piece solution. At the very least if this drive requires two cables, they should be small, portable, and retractable. The drive works well for what I need it for, but ultimately Iogear needs to put as much thought into their cabling solutions as they did into the design of the drive case.
But here's the good news: Iogear has a USB 2.0 version of this product out that says it's "bus powered", meaning it only requires one cable to function. That's a bit improvement, and ultimately that's the product I wish I had purchsed instead. Oh well. :wink:
