Seagate's excellent lineup of collector's HDDs took an icy turn for Gears 5, sporting the same designs as the amazing limited edition Gears 5 Xbox One X console. Is it worth buying, though?
Here's a closer look at this incredibly frosty accessory.
$99Bottom line: While this is an amazing collector's item, maybe the coolest external HDD ever designed, it's slow speeds won't future-proof it well.
For
- Stunning Gears 5 design
- Small and lightweight
- Bonus Lancer skin and Xbox Game Pass
Against
- HDD speeds are average at best
- Can get way more storage for the same price
A frost-bitten HDD masterpiece
I'm not sure I ever expected to be sitting here, praising the design of an external USB HDD, but it's 2019 and apparently, anything is possible. Seagate may have built the sexiest external HDD in existence, which also feels like one of the strangest sentences I've ever written. Seeing this thing up close and personal, though, is quite a delight.
The design work is the real headline here, in what would otherwise be a standard Seagate USB 3.0 external HDD. It sports the same attention to detail of Microsoft's internal products. It has textured frost on the upper side, the Locust symbol on the underside, and the incredible layering effect on the Gears omen, making it appear as though it's underneath the ice. It's hard to reproduce on video, but trust me when I say it's hypnotically stunning.
Beyond that, there isn't a huge amount to say about its design. It's simply excellent, and well worthy of a Gears fan's collection. It also comes with a month of Xbox Game Pass for good measure, and an in-game skin for the Lancer. It's powered entirely via USB, so there's no need to dedicate a power outlet to it. We've seen some 5TB versions floating around online, but they may be a store exclusive somewhere since Amazon seems to only carry a 2TB version for $100.
For Gears of War fans, the design and skin might be enough by themselves to push you over. If you're looking for storage though, the purchase decision gets a little blurry.
Should you actually buy the Seagate Gears 5 HDD?
Whether or not you'll want to buy this HDD hinges entirely on whether or not you actually need an external storage device. In 2019, USB HDDs just feel painfully slow, as SSD prices continue to come down. Using a cheap USB SSD enclosure and an internal SSD, you can get far faster speeds with decent storage space for around $100. Seagate's own Xbox SSD vastly outperforms their HDDs on speed, although you'll be paying a lot more for the same amount of storage.
The Gears 5 HDD (left) vs. Seagate's Xbox SSD speeds (right). Higher is better.
The Gears 5 Seagate HDD has an incredibly sexy design, but the limitations of HDD tech are becoming increasingly apparent in 2019, as loading times ramp up across the board. Rumors suggest that the next-gen consoles will ship with SSDs too, putting external HDDs on the backfoot. Additionally, Seagate does comparable USB HDDs for half the price, albeit without the sexy Gears 5 design.
Whether or not you'll want this rests entirely on whether or not you want the awesome design work and the Lancer skin, ultimately. There are better, cheaper storage options out there otherwise, including from Seagate itself.
A collector's item, through-and-through.
Average HDD speeds feel old-hat in 2019, but the design is as cool as they come. This isn't the best storage solution out there, but it's an epic collector's item, and that's the whole point.
