WD My Passport (2016) 4TB Portable Hard Drive Review

Be it for work or entertainment purposes, portable hard drives has been an indispensable companion for those who requires a storage device with large capacity beyond what by mere USB thumb drives can handle. Western Digital (WD) is a renowned brand in the portable hard drive market, with its Elements Portable, My Passport Ultra, and My Passport Slim throughout the years and just a month ago, WD announced the newly redesigned My Passport and My  Book that comes with a modern, stylish finish.

We’ve managed to get our hands on the new WD My Passport 2016 today here at the Tech Critter lab, which is a 4TB version of this new lineup. Special thanks to WD Malaysia as usual, for the provision of the review unit for our review here today!

(The WD My Passport 2016 4TB retails at RM709 and are available in 5 different choices of colors)

Technical Specification

Packaging

If you owned a WD portable hard drive in the past, you’ll immediately notice the obvious change in the packaging, which is now more striking in style with vivid colors. From the details on the packaging – both the icons and brief details on the back, we can pick up information such as the content of the box, warranty period of the product, as well as the features offered with ease.

Closer Look At The WD My Passport

Unlike any of the WD portable hard drives we’ve seen in the past, the new WD My Passport has a more striking design and vivid colors (5 variants in total, Red, Blue, Orange, Black, White). WD means to match the user’s unique personal style and preference when it comes to external storage devices.

While we did find the new design to be intriguing, the glossy surface of the enclosure did make us cringe a little. Extra care has to be taken if you really love the look of the drive, as glossy surfaces are prone to scratches and fingerprint residue, and we ourselves aren’t exactly a big fan of both.

Like any other portable hard drives you’ll find on the market, the WD My Passport comes with a USB 3.0 interface for faster transfer speed if your laptop or desktop supports USB 3.0 interface. It’s USB 2.0 backward compatible as well, so there’s nothing to worry about not being able to share your files to older generation devices that only has USB 2.0 but you do not benefit from any speed upgrades.

Transfer Speed Test

We’ve done a quick synthetic benchmark using both CrystalDiskMark and Anvil’s Storage Utilities to measure the reading and writing speed of the WD My Passport.  

WD Backup

The bundled WD Backup utility appears to have a much more simplified User-Interface compared to the WD SmartWare from the past. The first-time configuration of backup destination and the backup schedule is a breeze.

The additional backup plan can be added as well, in case if you have other data that requires backup on a different time. The copy of the backup can then be restored to either its original location or a different designated location that can be done in few simple steps.

WD Security

Similar to the WD Security utility in the past, the new revision of WD Security that is bundled with the is compatible WD portable hard drives from the previous generation that supports this functionality. The notable changes in the new revision of the WD Security utility are that the WD Security and WD Drive Unlock has been combined into a single entity instead of having 2 individual utility.

Performance wise, the WD My Passport 2016 shows not much difference compared to the majority of the portable hard drive you can get in the market. What makes the WD My Passport 2016 unique, however, is the bundled software and it’s actually worth looking into if you’re looking for a cheaper alternative for some basic features i.e data privacy and schedulable backup options of a Network Attached Storage (NAS). 

While the design of the new My Passport 2016 does look trendier than the previous generation of WD’s My Passport, we’re not exactly a big fan of the glossy surface as one will have to take extra care to avoid landing any scratches on it – ain’t nobody got time for that, right?

If your concern is more on its functionality, we’d say that the price tag of RM709 is a pretty good deal for a 4TB portable hard drive, not only for its capacity, but also the bundled software from WD for your needs of data privacy and backup options.