best portable external hard drive for macbook pro

Go for the cheapest drive you can find-up to a point. If you're making nightly backups, then speed probably doesn't matter.

Picking the right hard drive comes down to balancing three things: speed, size, and price. (Take all claims of “military standard” with a grain of salt-there’s no one actually doing independent tests, which is not to pick on OWC, as every “rugged” drive maker claims things like this.) What impressed me the most about this drive, though, is how incredibly cool it stays even under a heavy load (like editing 4K video footage straight from the drive). It’s IP67-rated and reasonably drop-proof.

For most, the 2-TB model is plenty, though still pricey at $400. It’s even faster and comes in sizes up to 4 TB, though the latter will set you back a staggering $900. If you want a larger drive, both physically and in terms of storage capacity, OWC’s Envoy Pro FX ($280 for 1 TB) makes a great choice as well. I also like that you can swap out the drive inside the aluminum casing (it's easy to unscrew), which means two years from now, you can pick up a faster bare SSD and drop it in the Elektron. It's tough to pick a winner here because there are many solid options, but OWC's Elektron drive narrowly beat others in benchmark tests.

If you need a drive that can stand up to life in a backpack or camera bag, get wet, or handle a drop onto hard surfaces, OWC drives are your best choice.

Best portable external hard drive for macbook pro