Pushing more capacity into tiny form factors
Even though the mobile market is benefiting from increasingly capacious and lower cost solid state drive options, Seagate still sees a market for good old fashioned mechanical hard disk drives. As such, the company said it achieved a major milestone in areal density that allows it to offer up to 2TB of storage space in a slim 7mm package.
This isn't the first 2TB mobile HDD, but the other models are bigger, as in physical size (9.5mm or taller). Seagate is the first to offer 2TB in a 2.5-inch, 7mm form factor, which could be attractive to OEMs looking to cram more storage capacity in ultra-thin laptops.
Seagate's new drive uses a two-platter design. I'm not sure there's a huge market for mechanical drives outside of laptops, but given the size, Seagate insists that OEMs can use its 2TB HDD in "virtually any kind of mobile device."
This isn't just two 1TB platters squished into a 7mm chassis. It also features "new mechanical firmware architectures, with state-of-the-art heads, media, and electronic design," Seagate says.
At just 3.17 ounces, Seagate's 2TB drive is 25 percent lighter than the previous generation. Seagate didn't offer up any performance metrics, though being a mechanical drive, don't expect to be blown away. That said, Seagate is considering a hybrid model that would combine NAND flash memory with spinning platters.
No word yet on price or availability.
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