Seagate FreeAgent Pro

Finding a reliable hard drive for taking backups is not an easy job.Most of the drives are plagued by reliability issues and some have low performance.Seagate FreeAgent series has drives to suit everyone’s need.Seagate FreeAgent Pro is a 3.5″ external drives.I am reviewing the 500GB model of it.

Here are its specifications:

• Dimensions : 1.4″ x 6.3″ x 7.5″
• Form factor : 3.5″
• Interface: FireWire/Hi-Speed USB/eSATA
• Spindle Speed: 7200 rpm
• AC powered

Seagate FreeAgent Pro features almost all the modern connection interfaces that you likely to encounter.The provision of eSATA interface makes the drive future proof and makes sure maximum juice is extracted out of the 7200 rpm drives that is hidden behind the enclosure.

The drive is enclosed within an black case with is slick and has a smooth surface.The drive cannot be used as a portable drive as it weighs a heavy 2 pounds.The drive is powered on a touch sensitive button.The base of the drive can be removed as different types of connection interfaces are available on the two bases provided by Seagate.Its good that Seagate has included a full manual rather than just providing one on the drive.

The FreeAgent and Memeo Backup software are the ones that come bundled with the drive with their setups on the hard drive itself.The Memeo backup software as the name suggests is used to take backups and can be configured to manage multiple backup tasks.The backup can also be stored on Seagate’s Memeo Internet Drive which is basically storage space on Seagate managed servers.You get a cool 500MB trial space for 6 months free with the drive.The monthly and yearly subscription charges are costly though.The lights on the drive,sleep interval times,diagnostics and other stuff can be managed from the FreeAgent Tools software.

Coming to the performance of this drive, the driveg fares rather good in assorted files tests with a write speed of 18 MBps and a read speed of around 20 MBps. The continous write speed test gave an impressive 25MBps as the write speed.This puts the drive in the league of high performing drives.If you have an eSATA compatible PC you can even futher stretch the speeds.

Pros:

• Sleek
• Good software bundle
• Fast transfer speeds
• 5 year warranty

Cons:

• Bundled software not Mac compatible
• Only trial space on Internet Drive included

Final Thoughts

The Seagate FreeAgent Pro is a no nonsense drive that does the job perfectly.Seagate has packaged a good software bundled which further enhances the capabilities of the drive.Fast transfer speeds add to the high capacity that this drive supports.I would highly recommend getting this drive if you want to take large backups without spending too much time on them.This drive is a best bang for its current price of around 225$.

Nokia 5310 XpressMusic

Slim is in! That has been the motto nokia has been following for its XpressMusic series. The cell phones released under this series are extremely thin and at the same time deliver great performance at a low price. Nokia 5310 is on the low priced models in this series and is complete value for money.

Nokia 5310 XpressMusic specifications :

• Dimensions : 103.8 x 44.7 x 9.9 mm
• Weight : 71g
• Display : 31.5 x 41.5 mm TFT with 240 x 320 resolution
• GPRS,EDGE,HSCSD
• Bluetooth, microUSB
• 2 MP Camera with
• Stereo FM with RDS
• 3.5 mm AV jack
• Approx. price : $270

At just 9.9mm in thickness it is one of the slimmest phones you will come across. It has almost all the features that one generally needs except that it is not 3G compatible. And it has been labelled XpressMusic which gives you an idea about its music playback capabilities.

The phone comes bundled with a 2G micro-SD card.The bundled package is pretty much the usual but Nokia has been kind enough to provide a microUSB cables for data transfers which are not easy to find.

The dimensions other than the thickness are also compact and by weighing just 71g it ensures that you don’t feel it in your pocket. The phone has been launched in two variations : Blue and Red. Being a music phone, it has dedicated music keys which have been placed at the left corner of the display. The D-pad easy to use, the keypad is also quite convenient to use as it has large keys. The volume rocker finds it place to the right panel of the phone.

Some of the drawbacks of this design are that the display tends to get dirty due to close placement of music keys. Also the memory slot is beneath the battery which makes hot-swapping of the card impossible.

The display is quite of a gem but the small size restricts its capabilities. At 16M colors and a QVGA resolution the display produces great picture clarity. Also it works well under sunlight.

Coming to the music playback of the phone. The dedicated keys help a great deal and are very handy to use. The music player is an upgraded version of the ones you would find in older phones from Nokia. A lot of formats like MP3,AAC,WMA,MIDI etc are supported. Sorting the tracks is same as before. A2DP profile as expected is supported by the phone. What has changed is that, now you can apply themes to customise the look of the player. You get 8 preset equalisers to choose from with custom ones always at your disposal.The audio quality is exceptionally good. The loudspeaker is loud and clear.

The camera does not feature a flash or autofocus which is disappointing. As the phone is a S40 one, the camera interface is not as intuitive as found on its S60 counterparts. But it does have enough controls to make use of the “limited” camera. The photo quality isn’t good either which was expected. Also another major drawback is that the camera is really slow and takes loads of time to save picture and do other stuff.

Pros :

• Slim and lightweight
• Dedicated music keys
• Great display
• Excellent music playback

Cons :

• Below average and slow camera
• No 3G
• Small display
• Memory card under battery

Final Thoughts

Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is an excellent phone for the price tag it carries. Although its camera is below par but there are other good points to boast about this phone such as it excellent music playback capabilities and great display. If you do not care about the camera then go ahead and buy this one.

My Rating : 3.75/5