G-DRIVE ArmorATD: two-minute review
Specification SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE ArmorATD
Interface: SuperSpeed USB five Gbps (USB thirty-one Gen 1)
Connector: USB Type-C
Drive: (1) two.5-inch hard drive
Data transfer speed: 1 TB, XNUMX TB: up to XNUMX MB/s read and XNUMX MB/s write
4 TB: up to XNUMX MB/s read and XNUMX MB/s write
5 TB: up to XNUMX MB/s read and XNUMX MB/s write
Operating temperature: 41°-95°F (5°-35°C)
Size (LxWxH): 1TB, 12TB: XNUMX" x XNUMX" x XNUMX" / XNUMXmm x XNUMXmm x XNUMXmm
4TB, 20TB: XNUMX" x XNUMX" x XNUMX" / XNUMXmm x XNUMXmm x XNUMXmm
Weight: 1 TB, 0,23 TB: XNUMX lbs/XNUMX kg
4 TB, 0,35 TB: XNUMX lbs/XNUMX kg
Operating Systems: macOS 12+ (Time Machine compatible), Windows® 10+ (via reformat)
What's in the box: G-DRIVE ArmorATD, USB-C to USB-C cable, USB-C to USB-A cable, Quick Start Guide
Western Digital has morphed into a confusing mess of brands of late, and this product embodies that company's lack of restraint in using its many labels.
The SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE ArmorATD merges two previously separate brands, SanDisk and G-DRIVE, and added ArmorATD in the hope that customers of either line of service will be tempted by it.
What the packaging fails utterly to explain is what ArmorATD stands for, but we're going to assume it has some sort of military background, and that sounds pretty difficult.
The reality of this product is that it is a typical 5-inch drive that has been elegantly built into an aluminum casing and has a rubber bumper wrapped around it to protect it from physical abuse.
The drive's port is USB-C, but SanDisk helpfully provides cables for USB-C and USB-A connections on the computer side. But there's no included bag to transport the drive and its cables, which opens up another opportunity for third-party case makers.
In addition to drop protection, the bumper also provides a plug that covers the USB-C port, helping the reader achieve the IP54 dust and water protection rating.
It should be noted that IP54 does not have exactly the same level of protection as IP68 and IP69, where the device can dive up to 1M over a period of time. The ArmorATD is only designed to be splash proof, and we accept that this is the case only if the protective port cover is in place and the cables are removed.
Since SanDisk doesn't provide a place to store cables, the chance of the drive plugging in while splattered or covered in dust seems remote at best.
The nice thing about the cables is that at two feet they're a good length, making ArmorATD just as easy to use with a desktop system as it is with a laptop.
However, the length of the cable suggests that the data transfer speed is not high, and with usual hard drives, the performance levels of SSDs are indeed inaccurate.
Lack of performance is where this design clashes with the mobile SSD behemoth. The speed of this drive is around 1% of what we would generally expect from a Gen XNUMX SSD and XNUMX% from a Gen XNUMX design.
Keeping in mind that the SSD is likely to be lighter and more shock resistant, ArmorATD relies on its cost per TB to seal this deal.
Our 1TB review model costs $8 or $XNUMX in the US, about $XNUMX or $XNUMX more than the Vital XXNUMX, a drive you can transfer at a thousand MB/s.
The X8 isn't IP54 rated, but it's reasonably rugged and much, much faster.
Where ArmorATD wins is as capacities increase, with the 8TB option coming in close to the cost of the 8TB XXNUMX and a third of the cost of the XNUMXTB XXNUMX.
Compared to other mainstream rugged hard drives, it's not the most affordable, but it's high-quality and comes with a 3-year warranty.
The biggest drawback here is that absolutely using all XNUMXTB on the larger ArmorATD is a practical challenge. It would take more than ten hours of progressive use to read or write that amount without interruption.
SanDisk makes an SSD version of this drive, but it costs more than either the Vital X6 or X8 design.
In general, as external hard drives, ArmorATD is well built and reasonably resistant to shock, dust, and water, but its transfer performance is a stumbling block for many users.
For those who only want an external drive to run a limited daily backup, ArmorATD is a good option, if a bit pricey.
G-DRIVE ArmorATD: costs and availability
- How much is it? Starting at $1 / $XNUMX for the XNUMXTB model
- At what point did it come out? is free now
- Where can you achieve it? Widely available at major online retailers in most areas and direct from Western Digital.
Western Digital is one of those distributors that manages to keep online retailers on the same price page as their direct retail store. However, the 1TB ArmorATD is around XNUMX% more affordable on Amazon, though the larger capacities are considerably closer to official retail cost.
In the UK, expect to pay €1, €XNUMX, €XNUMX and €XNUMX for the XNUMXTB options , two TB, four TB and five TB, respectively. These values translate to €XNUMX, €XNUMX, €XNUMX, and €XNUMX in the US, which given exchange rates, makes ArmorATD a better value outside of Europe.
A comparable product is the LaCie Rugged Mini 5TB, which costs €159.99/€167.99 for the 5TB option at most online retailers.
This makes ArmorATD overrated by around twenty-five%.
G-DRIVE Armor ATD: Design
- Elegant design
- the two wires
- conventional hard drive
Compared to the 85TB Silicon Power AXNUMX we covered lately, the build quality of the SanDisk product is much, much better. It's basically the same term though, a plastic covered extruded aluminum cylinder.
Where this design is superior, industry-standard USB-C ports are used, allowing third-party cables to replace the ones included by SanDisk, in the event of a break or loss.
The rubber bumper is already in place and unless you never intend to remove it or are clumsy, it's probably best left in place.
Removing the bumper is easy, but you have to be careful when putting it back on as the port cover obviously needs to line up with the port.
The bumper is designed to allow light from an Activity LED to pass through, although the location of this light makes it a bit difficult to see.
The cables are of good length and of superior quality, and are even marked with the "G" for G-DRIVE.
According to notes provided by SanDisk, the USB-C port is a Gen 1 variety (XNUMX Mbit/s), but the drive never comes close to the XNUMX MB/s suggested by the technology.
Based on the brand, we're going to assume that there's a Western Digital 5-inch drive in the ArmorATD, something they don't seem to sell as a basic device anymore.
It must be said that those who want to make a robust drive are going in the wrong direction by using a conventional hard drive. They can easily break if they are dropped during operation and can also be damaged even when the drive is not turning.
Where an SSD, unless it is of poor quality, must withstand blows that would destroy the heads and plates of a normal hard drive.
Putting the drive in a metal barrel and a rubber bumper helps, but it's never going to make the drive as resistant to shock as solid-state electronics.
G-DRIVE ArmorATD: Features
- robust casing
- Up to five TB of space
- without software
Aside from its obvious solidity, the ArmorATD doesn't have any noteworthy features.
SanDisk provides the drive pre-formatted for Apple macOS, which is going to create some confusion for Windows owners who don't know how to reformat drives.
Given the high cost of this unit, it was disappointing that Western Digital did not ship any software with this device, assuming the service customer already had it.
For Apple users, this won't be a problem as the device is Time Machine compatible, but some synchronization software for the PC might have been a useful inclusion.
G-DRIVE ArmorATD: performance
- Slow
- Lack of hardware encryption
Coming from SSD benchmarking, the performance, or rather lack thereof, with a usual HDD is something of a culture shock.
According to the spec sheet, the 1TB and XNUMXTB options of this drive are rated at XNUMXMB/s read and XNUMXMB/s write speeds. The larger XNUMXTB and XNUMXTB drives are even slower at XNUMXMB/s read and XNUMXMB/s write, which is disappointing.
Why SanDisk didn't ask for hybrid drives or more cache is a mystery, but the ArmorATD's performance is the unvarnished speed we've come to expect from a basic USB-connected 5-inch drive.
Our tests confirmed these numbers to near-precision with our 1TB review hardware, and the less said in this regard, the better.
There are two ways to look at these results, and the one SanDisk could take is that all standard 5-inch hard drives are very slow because they use heads and platters to read and write data.
Our vision is less pragmatic. If predictions are right, NAND flash is about to get dirt cheap at high capacities, creating SSDs larger than XNUMXTB for less than the XNUMXTB model of this drive, while still being significantly faster and offering even better impact resistance.
Obviously, those who don't want to wait for these products to appear can get the ArmorATD now, but some buyers' regret may be felt in the medium term.
This drive also doesn't support hardware encryption, which is slowly becoming more common for SSD options.
The larger capacities of the ArmorATD alone are worth estimating, and they're even slower than the 1TB and XNUMXTB models. It's not worth buying these drive capacities because there are SSDs out there that are just as robust and many times more efficient for a similar price.
While we can't help but be impressed with the quality of this product, it seems to be a bridge product waiting to be phased out by market economics.
The G-DRIVE ArmorATD is an acceptable product within the confines of a particular use case, but struggles to justify its cost in a...