Rank #8 in Best 2TB External Hard Drive: 8 Ranked, and the Speeds That Don't Add Up
Sonnics 2TB Black Desktop External Hard Drive
Price and rating as shown on Amazon when we collected them. Both change.
The Sonnics 2TB External Hard Drive is the eighth entry in this guide: a mains-powered desktop unit at £77.99 with a 4.4 out of 5 rating from 1,091 buyers. The listing cannot settle on what kind of drive it is. The title says "Desktop not Portable", the Product Features field says "Portable", and the form factor is given as 3.5 inches. If you want something that lives in a bag, those three lines matter more than the speed claims.
The speed claims are where the numbers come apart. The bullet text offers "up to 5GBPS", the spec table lists a read speed of 5 Gigabytes Per Second, and the same table lists a media speed of 50-150 MB/s - between 33 and 100 times slower than the read figure. A fourth number, the data transfer rate, is given as 5 Gigabits Per Second, which is bits rather than bytes and works out at roughly 625 megabytes per second. The table also carries a "Cache Memory Installed Size" of 5 with no unit attached, so it is unclear whether that is 5 MB or something else. Everything on this page comes from the Amazon listing for this drive; we have not tested it ourselves.
How those 1,091 ratings break down
An average hides its own shape. This is the spread behind the 4.4 stars.
Specification
Exactly as published on the Amazon listing, field for field.
| Price | £77.99 |
|---|---|
| Rating | 4.4 out of 5 from 1,091 ratings |
| Stated capacity | 2 TB |
| Read speed (as listed) | 5 Gigabytes Per Second |
| Media speed (as listed) | 50-150 MB/s |
| Data transfer rate (as listed) | 5 Gigabits Per Second |
| Form factor (as listed) | 3.5-inch (title says "Desktop not Portable"; Product Features field says "Portable") |
| Rotational speed (as listed) | 7200 RPM |
What buyers actually say
Quoted from customer reviews on Amazon
Verified purchase“I have only just powered this up to my Mac and it was immediately recognised without the need for any drivers/software. I have only transferred one file, which was a 2GB movie and it copied onto the drive in about 5 seconds.So far, so very good for the money, which was 75 GBP. No complaints as of yet.”
Verified purchase“It's excellent transfer speed are very fast and it's a right bargain for 3tbs whats not to like.”
What it is up against
The rivals it was ranked against in Best 2TB External Hard Drive: 8 Ranked, and the Speeds That Don't Add Up.
Questions people ask
Is the Sonnics 2TB drive portable?
The listing contradicts itself. The title says "Desktop not Portable", and the form factor is listed as 3.5 inches with mains power required, but the Product Features field says "Portable". The Sonnics listing is the only place that answer comes from, and it gives both.
How fast does the Sonnics 2TB transfer data?
The listing quotes four different figures: 5GBPS in the bullet text, 5 Gigabytes Per Second as read speed, 50-150 MB/s as media speed, and 5 Gigabits Per Second as data transfer rate. The media speed is the one that describes the disk itself.
Will the Sonnics 2TB work with an Xbox One or a PS4?
The bullets say the Sonnics drive is formatted to FAT32 and is suitable for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, Mac and Smart TV, with games installed directly to the external drive.
What rotational speed does the Sonnics 2TB run at?
The spec table lists 7200 RPM. That is the only rotational figure given anywhere in the Sonnics listing, and the title on the same page describes the unit as a desktop drive rather than a portable one.
What does the cache figure on the Sonnics 2TB mean?
The spec table lists "Cache Memory Installed Size" as 5 with no unit stated, so the listing does not say whether that is 5 MB or another measure. We can only report what is written.
How is the Sonnics 2TB rated by buyers?
4.4 out of 5 from 1,091 ratings. The breakdown runs from 7 one-star ratings to 69 five-star ratings, with 16 four-star and 6 three-star ratings in between.
Comments
Reader comments are not checked against the manufacturer's claims above.
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