Transcend 6.35 cm (2.5″) Portable internal HDD/SSD Enclosure Casing 25S3 – USB 3.1

Bought this product to convert my recently bought laptop hard drive into an external hard drive.

Now about the product. It came very neatly packed in a box with a high quality (but short) USB cable. The case is made of metal and has a nice, smooth finish. The blue led is nicely aligned with the case. All you have to do is remove the front panel which houses the adapter, connect your hdd/ssd and put it back on.xVd
Note: 1)The common size star screw driver might not work with as the screws are small. 2) It doesn’t support drives that are more than 9.5 mm height. If you have an old laptop hard drive, it could be >9.5mm and might not fit into the case (my 4 year old drive didn’t but the latest one did)

On the inside there’s a small rectangular strip of sponge. Probably used to prevent the drive from scratching against the enclosure. There’s some sponge at the bottom as well. So if you expect to get some sort of shock protecting stuff inside, you’ll be disappointed. And beacaue it’s made of rigid metal, the shock would directly get transferred to the hdd. Drop it and you’ll certainly inflict some damage to the hard drive inside (major or minor depends on your luck and the height of the fall). This is where it’s losing one star in my book.

I’ve been getting very good transfer speeds with my Hitachi hard drive attached to this. I’m not posting the transfer speeds here since it could be misleading. USB 3.0 interface is faster than sata2 so the speeds would certainly be dependent on your hard drive. Performance-wise it’s really good.

Other features:
It supports Transcend’s data management tools but you’ll have to download it from the website (no installation disc included). There’s a button on the drive which enables us to remount the drive without removing and connecting the device after being unmounted in windows. It also acts as an auto backup button. The most useful feature though is the auto sleep mode. If there’s no i/o activity for some time, the hard disk is automatically put to sleep.

Overall it’s a pretty decent product. It delivers the promised USB 3.0 performance. The only cons I could find were the absence of shock proofing material and the short cable.

Not much to say but I’ve had it for a few months and it works well and gives me a decent speed with a 2.5″ non SSD drive.

El material de aluminio y ensamblado con los laterales plasticos son de buena calidad, el disco entra exacto a su tamaño y se siente solido una vez armado. La conexión a la PC fue directa sin ningún problema y la velocidad de transferencia me parece bastante bien.

– No es algo negativo, pero hay que tener cuidado al introducir el hdd en el gabinete para no maltratar las gomas internas que lo sujetan. Pero no es difícil.

As I have a number of HDDs and SSDs, I have several USB 3.0 HDD enclosure to house them. In past I have tested/benchmarked all the enclosures and find that Transcend HDD Enclosure is BY FAR the best in all respect. (I happen to have 4 Transcend Casing, right now). FYI, I tested several other HDD enclosure including:

1. Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Upgrade Cable USB 2.0 to SATA STAE100 – Black
2. Storite 2.5 Inch SATA to USB 3.0 External Hard Drive Enclosure/Caddy – Blue
3. QuantumZERO QZ-HD02 USB 3.0 2.5″ Hard Drive Disk HDD/SSD External Enclosure Case for 9.5 mm, 7 mm 2.5″ SATA I, II, III HDD, SSD [ASMedia ASM1153E Chipset]
4. Transcend 2.5″ Portable HDD Enclosure Casing 25S3 – USB 3.0
5. Other native USB 3.0 HDD casings.

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How “Transcend 2.5″ Portable HDD Enclosure Casing” outperforms others:
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► SPEED: Among these lot Transcend’s enclosure provides as much as 446 MB/s (when used with compatible SSDs), other enclosures gives average speed of less than 200 MB/s.

► BUILT: Solid built with Aluminum alloy construction. Helps in heat dissipation.

► SUPPLIED CABLE: The cable provided with this package is best in class. However being thick, it lacks flexibility. Storite provides bifurcated (2 USB to be connected to PC) cable that is cumbersome.

►LOOKS: Undoubtedly best of the lot.

►EASE OF OPERATION: The storite & the Transcend both are similar (both Aluminum alloy), you have to open 2 screws (Philips 0 size, most common) and attach the HDD/SSD to the circuit board, insert it to the casing and tighten the 2 screws again. The Storite package includes a tiny screw driver but Transcend provides none. Its worth mentioning that the Storite casing is OK for SSDs but it is a bit tight/narrow for HDDs (HDD would get scratch-mark while inserting).
The Seagate attachment (its not whole casing) keeps the HDD totally open and for HDDs these looks odds (and not much safe), however, for SSDs its fine.
QuantumZERO (all plastic built) provides tool-free operation and you have to pull the cover, insert the HDD and cover it back. QuantumZERO also provides some padding material for the HDD, which is good. For ease of operation QuantumZERO is the winner among these, IMO.

► PRICE: The Transcend & the Storite are selling at almost same price, QuantumZERO’s price is almost Rs. 100/- cheaper (it is all plastic), and the Seagate attachment is selling at a hopping Rs. 1699/- . So the price of the Transcend enclosure seems quite reasonable.

► BACK-UP BUTTON/BUNDLED SOFTWARE: The transcend casing, like other transcend HDDs has a one-key back-up button, which can be used (with ‘Transcend Elite Data Management’) for backing up files from PC with just a press of it. (I personally don’t use it)

► VERDICT: If you plan to use any SSD (now or in near future) with the enclosure then go blindly for the Transcend casing. Otherwise if you want to use it with normal 2.5″ HDDs then also you can opt for this.

[If the review helps you, please vote it up, otherwise please comment, if I missed something. For any further queries please email me.]