Manufacturer: XS-Drive
Model: 2XL
Price: £135-£199
www.xs-drive.com

We’ve seen a few portable storage solutions recently, especially XS-Drives, which seem to be updated pretty regularly.

The 2XL is a no-nonsense device, with just two buttons – one for power and one to initiate copying from a media card.

We tried out the 40GB version, and it really is easy to use – you insert a card (all of the major formats are supported) and press copy.

The two inch screen displays an animated ‘flying file’ symbol and percentage of the card copied.

Once it hits 100% the images are copied and you can remove the card.

We found that 1GB of data takes around 8 minutes to copy over. The unit uses USB 2.0 to transfer images to the PC, and a driver is included for Windows 98. Later versions of Windows or Mac automatically recognise the drive.

The 2XL is well built with a metal casing, better than some older XS units, and is smaller.

The blue screened LCD is bright and simple to understand, and the two button operation really couldn’t be simpler. However it lacks a verification system that I would be really confident in, with no file name system or menu options. Also the stripped down nature doesn’t allow image viewing. That said, it didn’t let me down and seems capable, simple and tough.

Verdict:
OK so there are hard drives out there with far more features but this did the job and did it well

Pros:
Simple to use, capable and reliable

Cons:
Lack of verification system and no image viewing

What Digital Camera Score: 82%