External hard drives
A terabyte more, or a page that says which USB generation you are getting?
These two are the volume end of the portable shelf and both pages are thin. The WD My Passport 5 TB is the largest portable capacity in this batch and names its interface only as SuperSpeed USB — a marketing name, not a numbered generation. The Seagate 4 TB prints USB 3.0 twice and adds backwards compatibility with 2.0, then spends two of its five bullets on where the drive may be bought.
| Compared on | My Passport 5 TB | Portable 4 TB external drive |
|---|---|---|
| Capacity | 5 TB, in the maker’s unit — the largest portable capacity here | 4 TB, in the maker’s unit, no conversion applied |
| Portable or desktop format | Portable — mobile storage with a slim design | Portable — a light, compact way of expanding a computer’s capacity |
| USB generation | Not published as a generation — SuperSpeed USB is a marketing name, and no 3.0, 3.1 or 3.2 appears anywhere | USB 3.0, named twice, with backwards compatibility to USB 2.0 |
| Stated link rate | Not published — no figure in gigabits per second follows the interface name | Not published — file transfer is called fast and no figure follows |
| Connector type | Not published — cables are counted in the plural and the plug at neither end of any of them is named | Not published — neither the socket on the drive nor the plug at the computer end is named |
| Power source | Not published — no mains adapter, and nothing about drawing power from the port | Not published — plug-and-play is promised and nothing about supply is said |
| Stated dimensions | Not published — the design is called slim and no measurement follows | Not published — the drive is called compact and no measurement is printed |
| Weight | Not published, and no claim about weight is made either | Not published — the drive is called light with no figure in grams |
| Cable supplied | Yes, in the plural; how many and what they end in is not stated | Not published — no lead is counted and no box contents are given |
| Warranty length | Not published | Not published |
| On Amazon.com, October 26, 2026 | Listed, no current offer | Listed, no current offer |
A tick means one listing published something the other did not, or published a better figure. It does not mean the product is better, and the column is not a score out of anything: a maker who says less loses lines here without losing a comparison. The two verdicts below are where the page is settled.
No Amazon.com offer for the Western Digital My Passport 5 TB on October 26, 2026: it may not be buyable in the United States, which is the first thing to weigh against anything below.
The My Passport is the drive to buy for capacity: 5 TB is the most portable storage in this batch, and it comes with cables in the box rather than a promise of compatibility. What its page will not tell you is which USB generation the socket belongs to — SuperSpeed USB has covered several — so the transfer rate you get is unknown before it arrives. Password protection and scheduled copies are named, which is more than the Seagate page offers.
No Amazon.com offer for the Seagate Portable 4 TB external drive on October 26, 2026: it may not be buyable in the United States, which is the first thing to weigh against anything below.
The Seagate is a terabyte smaller and its interface is stated: USB 3.0, twice, with 2.0 compatibility. That is the one row where it is the clearer document. Everything else is missing, including any mention of a cable, and two of its five bullets are about where the drive may be purchased rather than what it is. On a page with five bullets, spending two that way is a choice about what a buyer is told.
It has been used for several generations, which is exactly the problem. A page that prints SuperSpeed USB and no number has not said which one, and the rates differ between them. This comparison records the WD generation as not published for that reason, and the Seagate as published because it prints 3.0 in figures.
On this shelf, no. Of the external drives here, most publish no term at all — the LaCie Rugged is one of the few that does, at three years. A missing term is a fact about the listing, not a statement that no cover exists, and this site does not fill it in from elsewhere.
5 TB · 2.5-inch portable · USB 3.2 Gen 1 / USB 3.0 · 107 × 75 × 19 mm · 7.4 oz · password protection · 3-year limited warranty
A 5 TB portable USB 3.2 Gen 1 drive with backup software, password protection and hardware encryption, sold with a 3-year limited warranty.
Best for: A laptop owner who needs a second copy of large files on separate hardware, locked with a password, and does not need SSD speed.
No Amazon.com offer on October 26, 2026
4 TB · 2.5-inch portable · USB 3.0, works on USB 2.0 · bus-powered · 18 in cable included · Windows and Mac · 1-year Rescue data recovery
A 4 TB portable drive that powers from the USB port, ships with an 18-inch USB 3.0 cable and includes a year of Seagate’s Rescue data recovery, at $189.99 on Amazon.com on October 28, 2026.
Best for: A laptop or a game console that has run out of room, or a second backup copy, where 4 TB at a moderate price matters more than speed.
No Amazon.com offer on October 26, 2026
Every price named in a summary was read on the date that review carries. What a shop asks today is shown beside the product, and it moves.
