Reviews related to : Verbatim

Verbatim have recently launched some larger capacity drives, while it was not possible to get these newest items in for review their PR person assured me the smaller capacity ones sent to me were identical in all but capacity.
So the two drives getting a look at are both external drives the ‘Store ‘n’ Go and the Store ‘n’ Save. I was sent a 500GB portable drive, the first problem is extracting it from the shelf pack and once your scissors have cut your way in there is still another layer of protection to remove. Having plugged the supplied USB3 lead into the drive you find four files on the drive – two each for MAC and PC.
The handy-sized Verbatim Bluetooth Mobile Speaker, 44404, is a practical means of providing decent sound for the traveller.
This stylish battery-powered speaker has a choice of inputs: Bluetooth or direct via a 3.5mm audio port. It is cylindrical in shape – 7cm in diameter and 5.5cm tall and weighs 257g. The bottom cm or so is black in colour with a red styling line running around it. The remainder, a metallic grey in colour, is covered in etched vertical lines. The base is cloth covered while the top is a robust metallic grill, with the Verbatim logo at its centre, covering the 40mm speaker driver.
The Store’n’Go super speed USB 3.0 500GB portable hard drive is one of a new series from Verbatim that provide a convenient way to back up the files on one’s laptop.
In addition to this 500GB drive the others in the series have capacities of 1 and 2TB. They each incorporate a 5400rpm, 2.5inch drive in a unit which is 119 x 81 x 14.5mm in size and weighs 150g so that it is easily carried around in a pocket or rucksack. They are available in a choice of colours -- black, silver, blue, red and white -- with a diamond check pattern embossed front surface together with the Verbatim name and logo. They are supplied with a 21cm USB 3.0 cable.
A laptop bag is as much a tool as the laptop that goes in it. Consequently, it must be comfortable to use while protecting the machine and its associated accessories together with any other necessities. The Stockholm 16 inch notebook backpack in Verbatim’s Bags for Business range has been designed to meet these criteria.
The Stockholm is for notebooks of up to 16 inches as well as being able to accommodate a tablet of up to 10.1 inches together with everything else that one needs to carry. It certainly does not appear to be flimsy in any way and seems to be well made and robust and looks as if it will provide a very reasonable degree of all round protection. Coloured black overall with red detailing the fabric and zips all appear to be heavy duty. It is 45 (H) x 36.5 (W) x 21cm (D) and weighs 1kg.
Verbatim’s Mobile Power Bank model 97926 is designed to provide backup power for tablets and smart phones for those on the move. Because it has dual outputs, it will prove particularly valuable for those who need to keep two devices working and yet cannot be certain of always being within reach of a convenient power source.
The Power Bank has a capacity of 10,000mAh which should be enough to provide up to 100% of the battery capacity for the majority of tablets as well as keeping one’s phone on the go. It is in a stylish polished black plastic case measuring 170 x 115 x 11mm with rounded corners and edges and weighing 350g, which will slip neatly into the corner of one’s carry-on bag as it is roughly the size of a paper-back book but much thinner.
It is Big Red Bus time yet again as two similarly specified devices arrive from different companies.
Every so often a Big Red Bus moment occurs and this is one of those situations.  Recently two products arrived within a week or so of each other with similar functionality.  No sooner had I completed my look at the Kingston MobileLite Wireless product than the Verbatim MediaShare Wireless offering arrived for review.
While we all know that it is essential to back up our data, all too often we don’t do it routinely. As Verbatim’s new Store’n’Go USB3.0 portable hard drive is small and comes with back-up software so making it just that bit more convenient to use. Hence, it is just the device to make it more likely for us to get into the habit which will reduce the risk of coming to grief.
This new Ultra Slim 500GB USB 3.0 hard drive, is 80 x 160 x 10 mm thick and is of a size that will easily fit into the corner of a drawer when at home or in the office. Equally well, as it only weighs about 150g complete with the 60cm USB 3.0 cable it can be carried in a pocket or handbag. After all, one doesn’t want to keep it in one’s laptop bag as this would risk both the machine and backup being lost or stolen at the same time.
Internal SATA SSD drive v external USB3 drive. The second is four times the capacity of the first. The first is very fast, but the second is no slouch. The first is a bare drive but cased, the second shiny black and silver with lead.
This small unit overall size 10x7x1cm looks like an external device as it is sealed and other ‘bare’ drives have been exactly that with the component parts on view. This however has just one thing open that is the fitment to attach to a SATA port. A nice idea as some people are less than careful when they handle bare devices and can damage then during installation.
Once again Birmingham has five days of mayhem with the Gadget Show taking centre stage, amongst the outrageous and unlikely are some more grounded items. In the storage arena these are shown by Verbatim on their stand.
You can see everything at the show between today and Sunday although please check before travelling as I understand some days are sold out. So when I say Verbatim what comes to mind, well for me anyway it is CD and DVD media. Of course they also do larger capacity flash drives, SSD drives - review of one such item coming shortly – hard drives, floppy discs - yes some people still use them – digital video cassettes, UDO discs which have a capacity of 30GB three times that of MO discs.
Verbatim’s Go Mini Optical Travel Mouse is targeted at the traveller who is counting the grams and, at the same time, wants to keep things simple. It is a USB mouse with a spring-loaded ‘wind-up’ retractable cable that should suit the need of the busy person on the move.
Although laptops and netbooks incorporate track pads, a great many people still prefer to use a mouse.However, if they want to take one along on their travels, they are faced with the extra weight, the space that it takes up and, all too often, a USB cable that gets itself into a knot. The Go Mini mouse addresses these issues as it is small in size having dimensions 150 x 42 x 29mm and weighing just 44 grams (less than 2 ounces).
Here I am looking at a 32GB external USB3 SSD drive from Verbatim and a more normal 32GB stick type flash USB drive from Kingston. While lots of people make stick drives in all sizes 32GB is certainly a serious size.
While I have reviewed a number of internal SSD drives this is the first that I have looked at that is designed as a USB offering, to get the best speed out of it you will need USB3 but it will work on a USB2 port quite well. It is small enough to fit easily in a top pocket. Its dimensions are 9x4x.6cm; the USB3 lead provided is only 13cm so it will need to be placed close to a port. It comes in brushed aluminium with the two ends in a light grey plastic.
Usually data-on-the-move makes use of the various USB sticks currently available. Now Verbatim is offering this kind of portability with an SSD device.
In the past I have looked at a number of offerings in Verbatim’s Store’n’Go product range.  These items have been USB sticks, generally blue in colour, of varying capacities.  The latest addition to the Store’n’Go range, however is totally different in certain aspects to the earlier products.
Although we have all known that LED lamps offer the benefits of robustness and high efficiency, they have been long awaited in the field of general lighting. One of the main issues is that they cannot compete on price with the compact fluorescent lamps (CFCs) which, in smaller wattages, can be obtained at seemingly ridiculously low prices. CFCs have been widely adopted despite the fact that they emit UV and contain mercury. Now, however, Verbatim has launched a range of replacement LED lamps -- so far in a limited range of wattages and fittings.
Although these lamps (as well as those from other vendors) are appreciably dearer than CFCs they should find a number of immediate applications, despite their price, because of the benefits they offer and the fact that they can be used as direct replacements of existing lamps. Furthermore, it is sensible to avoid exposure to UV wherever possible. In particular the Verbatim LED Classic A 6.
Now 1 and 2GB USB sticks are common and cost not a lot, 4GB and 8GB are almost normal but 16GB are still something a little bit special. The smaller sticks are coming in fancy clothing even as a small paperclip type device.
The size of hard discs continue to rise so people expect the size of memory sticks to keep pace. With USB3 starting to attract attention moving larger files quickly is getting ever easier. Of course the more data you carry the more disastrous the outcome should unencrypted files fall into the wrong hands. Here lets deal with size. I have seen two of these such devices at 8GB and 16GB they are not light as they are made of metal and the USB plug slides out of the casing when required.
If you have a PC or Notebook with poor speakers then your normal option is to lump it or use headphones/earbuds, here some rather nice headphones – great for privacy – but also a second option is external speakers.
First the headphone solution, this is not a cheap solution but one anyone who sees it will think a single word quality. In their non expanded state they are 16cm across 15cm high and a maximum of 5cm across at the earpieces. However the earpieces flip in and the whole will fit into a supplied zip up case 17x12x4cm so ideal for travelling. Apart from the supplied 1.2metre micro USB to USB lead and a 1.5metre 3.5 to 3.
As hard drive increase in capacity so does the demand for faster data transfer. Verbatim offers a solution.
The arrival of USB 3.0 brings with it the promise of a data transfer rate at 10 times faster than that achievable with the previous version of the technology.  However not everybody has a computer system that can currently take advantage of this new technology due to the lack of suitable USB ports.  Fortunately USB 3.0 interface cards are becoming available so that existing systems can be upgraded to accept the faster data exchange rate from appropriate devices.
Hard drives no bigger than a floppy drive (3.5inch version) are now the norm. What to a man of mature years still takes some getting used to is their capacity is hundreds of time the size and the stack of floppy disk would be huge.
It weights 150grams and will easily fit into a shirt pocket. I was less happy about the colour I was sent as it is close to err pink but I suppose it’s also close to a milky red. It has two white stripes (the GT bit) along the length. It is 11.8x7.5x1.5cm the only connection is a mini USB port towards the front of the left side of the unit. The base and sides are silver grey and each corner of the base has a small rubber foot for stability when on your desk.
As part of its expansion into areas other than purely media storage, Verbatim has released a new product designed to deal with your media management.
Bringing together the functionality to record, store and play all your multimedia content with wireless LAN capabilities is the designated aim of Verbatim’s MediaStation HD DVR product.  This kit consists of a black box, various leads, remote control, and a CD containing Nero Move It Essentials, transcoding software plus the User Manual in PDF format.  You also get and some Getting Started documentation but this is minimal rather than comprehensive.
In theory you just connect this External Hard Drive (almost as easy as the USB unit reviewed on Wednesday) install some software and then you have 1TB of external storage, shame it did not happen like that.
This Network Attach Storage (NAS) unit measures 19x11x5cm and is matt black apart from the face that is shiny black. The front has a green pin hole LED in the middle. The connections are on the back, two USB ports, Ethernet port and DC input above this the on/off button. It comes with a CD-ROM that has an application called Finder, manuals and Nero Back It Up 4 Essentials. There is also a printed manual the first 51 pages in English.
This is a very thin 500GB portable USB hard drive that displays the free space available even when no power is available (or even connected to a PC). Could this unit be the way that all external hard drives will become?
This is really easy to attach via the 50cm USB cable supplied, to any –preferably- USB 2 port and after a few seconds Windows will recognise it as an external drive. There is a tiny Quick Start Guide with two pages in English and a folded (equally tiny) sheet of paper with a single side in English explaining why 500GB means 465GB. It is also stated to work on MACs. The hard drive already has the User Manual and Nero Back It Up Essentials 4 on it.