Expert Rating
Benefits
- Robust and weather resistant
- Up to 6TB capacity
- Good performance of 2.5 inch hard drive
- Cheaper per terabyte compared to SSDs
The inconvenients
- Not an SSD
- A bit bulky for a 2.5 inch hard drive
Our verdict
The rugged, weather-resistant, and sleeved ArmorATD USB hard drive from SanDisk Professional comes with a capacity of up to 6TB and is a good hard drive for its kind.
Best Prices Today: G-Drive ArmorATD
$174.99
2.5-inch external hard drives have been limited to 5TB capacities for several years, but WD/SanDisk has just released a line of new 6TB drives, including the incredibly rugged and weather-resistant SanDisk Professional G-Drive ArmorATD, which is the subject of this review.
SanDisk Professional G-Drive ArmorATD: Features
The ArmorATD is a larger-than-usual 2.5-inch 5Gbps USB external hard drive, available in capacities up to 6TB. In this case, the bulk is a good thing, as it provides room for shock absorption and crush resistance (up to 1,000 lbs.). While we don’t have the means to test the ArmorATD to 1,000 lbs., the drive’s construction leads us to believe that claim. The drive also has an IP54 rain and dust rating.
Part of the G-Drive ArmorATD’s 5.1 x 3.45 x 1.15-inch (13.30 x 8.76 x 2.92 centimeters) and 13-ounce (0.37 kilogram) weight is a silicone sleeve that covers the edges, corners, and ends. This includes a captive silicone cap that covers the USB-C port. WD/SanDisk bundles the USB-C to USB-C and USB-C to USB-A cables so you can use it on any computer.
The warranty on the G-Drive ArmorATD is three years, limited. “Limited” for hard drives usually refers to major physical abuse such as dropping it from the Empire State Building, running it over with a steamroller (usually gas or diesel!), or baking it in an oven.
SanDisk Professional G-Drive ArmorATD: price
It’s surprising that the ArmorATD isn’t more expensive, considering the extra hardware needed to make it more rugged and weather-resistant. It’s only slightly more expensive than the WD My Passport Ultra for Mac and comes in 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 5TB, and 6TB versions.
As is often the case with hard drives, the price per terabyte is better if you opt for the higher capacity drives. At the time of writing, the 6TB ArmorATD model costs $230/£226, or about $38/£38 per terabyte. However, the 5TB model is currently the best value for money in our estimation: it was $170/£170, or $34/£34 per terabyte.
SanDisk Professional G-Drive ArmorATD: performance
Being a 2.5-inch hard drive, the ArmorATD’s performance won’t be as sexy as SSDs. We’ve used hard drives for decades and still managed to get by.
The ArmorATD’s roughly 110 to 140 MB/s read and write speeds are plenty for streaming music and audio (multiple streams), recording video, and backing up using Time Machine or similar software in the background. Also note that the ArmorATD hit 140 MB/s in CrystalDiskmark 8 on the USB 3.2×2 port in PCWorld’s test bench, which is 10 MB/s faster than the WD My Passport Ultra for Mac or the evocatively named “My Passport, works with USB-C” drive. Factor that into your purchase calculation.
Blackmagicdesign’s drive speed test numbers for the ArmorATD are slightly better than the My Passport Ultra for Mac and comparable to a 2.5-inch external hard drive.
The G-Drive ArmorATD’s performance under AmorphousDiskMark is about average for a 2.5-inch external hard drive.
Should I buy the G-Drive ArmorATD?
I don’t know of a 2.5-inch external hard drive that surpasses the SanDisk Professional G-Drive ArmorATD in terms of ruggedness, weather resistance, features, or performance. It’s no small feat, but it’s a travel beast in the best sense of the word.
Find out how it compares to other Mac hard drives in our roundup of the best.
igamesnews: How We Test Storage Devices
igamesnews runs Blackmagicdesign’s Disk Speed Test and AmorphousDiskMark 4 with the drive formatted in APFS. But we also put the drives through sister publication PCWorld’s battery of tests as follows:
IDG storage tests currently use Windows 11, 64-bit, running on an X790 motherboard (PCIe 4.0/5.0)/i5-12400 CPU with two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 4800MHz modules (64GB total memory). USB 20Gbps and Thunderbolt 4 ports are integrated into the rear panel, and Intel CPU/GPU graphics are used. The 48GB transfer tests use an ImDisk RAM disk taking up 58GB of the 64GB total memory. The 450GB file is transferred from a 2TB Samsung 990 Pro that is also running the OS.
Each test is performed on a drive that has been recently formatted with NTFS and TRIM to ensure optimal results. Note that under normal use, as the drive fills up, performance may decrease due to less NAND memory for secondary caching, as well as other factors. This factor is less significant with the current range of SSDs, which have much faster NAND memory.
Caution: The performance figures shown apply only to the drive shipped to us and the capacity tested. SSD performance may vary depending on capacity due to the greater or lesser number of chips for shotgun reads/writes and the amount of NAND available for secondary caching. Suppliers also occasionally swap out components. If you notice a significant discrepancy between the performance you get and what we have,e reportplease do not hesitate to let us know.
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