HITS

NEW YORK – Western Digital (WD) used Pepcom’s new product showcase for media June 21 to spotlight the latest solid-state drives (SSDs) across its SanDisk, WD Black and WD My Passport brands, as well as its newest WD My Book hard drive.

The rugged SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD delivers high-speed transfers with up to 550 MB a second (MB/s) read speed, which the company said makes it especially good for saving and editing high resolution photos and videos. Its IP 55 rating and solid-state core enables it to stand up to rain, spills, dust and drops, WD said. The new line comes in capacities of 250 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB and 2 TB at prices ranging from $115.99-$629.99, and retailers selling them include Adorama, Amazon, B&H and Best Buy, according to WD.

The 2-TB SKU is brand new, Luke Ottrey, product marketing manager, told us, noting the company, with the SanDisk line, is “targeting photographers” whose computers might not offer them enough capacity for all their images.

The 550 MB/s maximum read speed, meanwhile, is an extra 10 MB over what the WD My Passport line offers, providing another way to help differentiate the separate branded lines and help retailers explain the different pricing levels between the lines. In fact, the company offers 560 MB/s maximum read speed in its separate G-Technology SSD premium line targeted at audio/video, photography and other creative professionals, Ottrey pointed out. That line wasn’t touted at the event.

The latest My Passport SSD line is shock-resistant and features password protection with hardware encryption to help keep users’ content secure, WD said. The SSDs are built to withstand a drop of up to 6.5 feet, according to the company. They come in capacities of 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB and 2 TB at prices ranging from $99.99-$699.99, and retailers selling them include Adorama, Amazon, B&H, Best Buy and Walmart, according to WD.

WD is also fielding a My Passport wireless SSD that the company said in promotional material was designed to “preserve photos and videos captured on your cameras and drones.” Files can be quickly and easily backed up with the built-in SD card reader and one-touch copy button, while content is “safeguarded from shock, vibrations and drops up to 1 meter, thanks to its durable SSD and protective bumper,” WD said.

Other features include up to 10 hours of battery life and the ability to stream 4K video via the My Cloud app. The new line comes in capacities of 250 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB and 2 TB at prices ranging from $229.99-$799.99, and retailers selling it include Amazon, B&H and Best Buy, according to WD.

The WD Black 3D NVME SSD line, meanwhile, is targeted at consumers including PC gamers using high-end computers, Ottrey said. SSDs in this line were “built to accelerate data for PC applications to enable users to quickly access, engage and capture today’s high-resolution video, audio and gaming content,” the company said.

The WD Black 3D NVME SSD line is “equipped with exceptional sequential read and write performance combined with up to 1 TB” capacity and the SSDs are “ideal for enhancing user experiences in gaming environments that benefit from acceleration of intensive fast data,” according to the company. They also feature sequential read performance of up to 3,400 MB/s (for the 1 TB and 500 GB models) and sequential write performance of up to 2,800 MB/s (1 TB only). They also come in 250 GB. Pricing ranges from $109.99-$399.99. The line was demonstrated at the event using a high-end computer built for the company by iBUYPOWER, a WD spokeswoman said.

The latest My Book hard drive line comes in 3 TB, 4 TB, 6 TB and 8 TB SKUs, along with a new 10 TB capacity, according to WD. Pricing ranges from $89.99-$299.99 and they are being carried at retailers including Adorama, Amazon, B&H, Best Buy and Walmart. The line features password protection with hardware encryption and can be paired with WD Backup for PCs or Apple Time Machine for Macintosh computers.