Verbatim launches sexy, always-on HDD

Verbatim’s shooting for style points with its latest USB hard drive, with slick curves and a “premium piano black finish,” to quote the company.

In addition, the InSight portable drive has an “Always On” display that shows the drive name and available storage space even when it’s not connected to a computer. Verbatim sees this as a way for users to distinguish the content of multiple drives, in case users purchase more than one.

The InSight comes in a 320 GB model for $120 and a 500 GB model for $150. Both spin at 5,400 RPM and transfer data at 480 MB per second through the drive’s USB 2.0 port. For Windows users, Nero BackItUp Essential software is included for automatically creating system backups, though the drives are compatible with Macs as well. The drives have a 5-year warranty and are available now through Best Buy and other retailers.

I like the form factor of the InSight, which measures 6 x 3.4 x 0.63 inches. It’d rest nicely alongside laptop for extra storage, and would fit snugly inside a coat pocket. The Always On screen is a nice touch, though I think the ability to glance at remaining capacity is the most useful aspect of that feature.

I believe we’ve touched on this before, but what’s really neat about the hard disc drive space now are the external features that are popping up besides storage capacity and read/write speeds. Some of the perks we’ve seen lately include extreme durability, automatic backup and media center functions. And all of this is being done within the $100 to $200 price range you’d expect from a high-capacity drive.

Now all we need is for some clever manufacturer to roll all these features into one epic hard drive, and we’d be all set.