Review: Toshiba Canvio Advance

Typically, a new and anticipated game nowadays is around at least 20-30GB in space, where as some like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Gears of War 4 can remove as much as over 100GB from our consoles/systems. It doesn't take many games to fill the entire 500GB built-in HDD, and so the majority of gamers use external HDDs, offering up to around 8GB (or even more) in space, drastically increasing your ability to be able to play any game you want, at any time. Toshiba, one of the most known names when thinking of external HDDs, sent me a sample of their latest, the Canvio Advance, to review, and I've now used it for quite some time. After using it for installing/downloading, uninstalling, moving, and copying countless amount of games, I can safely say that I've made my mind up of what score it should receive. 

Used/formatted for: games. Platform used: Xbox One S. Features The Canvio Advance is the perfect HDD for the people that want their device to look as stylish as possible, featuring a glossy piano finish that fits right into the modern household, accompanied by a small size of 78 x 109 x 14 mm (2TB, size is different depending on what amount of TB it contains). 

There's multiple color options, they are: red, blue, black, and white, all offering an uniquely beautiful design. I received the blue one, and in addition to having a blue color overall, the light on it that tends to blink from time to time, is also of a blue color (wether that's because of the blue color overall, or due to it maybe being the light's color on every different design, is not known, it still looks awesome). It's nothing less than a HDD that uses the mandatory USB 3.0 interface (if you want a fast HDD, and one that is compatible for the Xbox One), with a max transfer rate of around 5GBit/s, which is actually pretty fast. 

As most probably know, the option to move games between different HDDs on an Xbox One is a thing, and it's also very useful. The Canvio Advance offers very fast speeds as mentioned, even faster than my Western Digital HDD (or so it seems like, at least), giving me a quicker time of being able to play a game that I suddenly need to move to another device. Of course, filling it with games isn't the only possibility, external hard drives are perfect for storing movies, pictures, files, and other media of value to you. 

Not only does the Canvio Advance safely secure everything contained in it via the Toshiba Storage Security Software that's included with the purchase (password protection), it also has an automatic backup solution to easily back your data up. I really adore the way the Canvio Advance is simple, elegant, AND great as an external hard drive at the same time, not compensating in any way, or sacrificing any feature/quality of any kind while doing so. Quality Whenever I want a new HDD, I want one that's an all-rounder, one that has a steady balance regarding every important aspect that makes an external good. 

Speed, design, capacity, quality features, safety, and more. Many offer this, and I'm very satisfied with my Western Digital, I've actually had it for over 4 years, with it nearly being powered on 24/7, as well, but many also offer a device with next to no quality. The goal is of course for the Canvio to also hold out for that long, but obviously, I can not speak that much about its durability due to the fact that I've only had it for about 1-2 months. So far, everything has been great, I've had zero issues with it, and it was super easy to set up for my Xbox One console. By plugging the USB cable that is included in the box, into the Xbox, I'm instantly notified of the device being ready to be formatted, either for storing videos/files/pictures and other media, or for games. 

No matter the choice of media, formatting the drive is quick & simple, and just seconds after starting the procedure, I'm free to start downloading/installing games (or other media). The bonus to using an external HDD is that some of them give games a bit of a loading time boost, as in resulting in games loading faster, meaning that it's not only an upgrade in space, it's essentially also an upgrade in the one thing that external hard drives are used for the most, gaming. That's exactly the thing with Toshiba's Advance, it decreases loading time by a few seconds, which is awesome! The drive I received has a capacity of 2TB, but the Canvio Advance can contain games up to 4TB worth of space. 

My time with this drive has been filled with only positives, I've nearly filled it entirely, downloading/installing and moving countless amounts of games each day, testing it to 100%. I'm glad that I am able to say that it's probably the best HDD I've used (I'm sorry, Western Digital), and I use it every day for gaming. I literally can not find any con regarding this drive, it's simply great in every possible way. The blue color fits just right on my desk, and its small size, as small as my WD drive, does not complicate things at all, either. Of course, it's super quiet, as well! This is what's included in the box: 1x Canvio Advance 1x USB 3.0 cable (Type A to Micro-B) 1x User‘s manual (pre-installed on the hard drive). All in all I had never used a Toshiba HDD before reviewing this, so it's safe to say that I wasn't sure of what to expect from them. I'm more used to seeing people using Seagate or Western Digital drives, but I honestly would probably prefer a Toshiba drive. Why? Well, since it's perfect in every way. It's durable, fast, stylish & elegant, big in terms of capacity, and is as big as a HDD should be (in actual physical size). To top it all off, it's incredibly easy to set up, and get started with! It also offers quicker loading times for games, while keeping the data secure, and easily backing it all up. I use external hard drives every day, and this is by far the best one I've used, not only due to its features & capacity, but also because of its beautiful design. I'm more than happy with the Canvio Advance, and I fully recommend it to everyone that are looking for the ultimate all-rounder HDD. I think Toshiba has done a splendid job with it!

The Canvio Advance from Toshiba is available at a price of $107 (2TB). Depending on what capacity is needed, the price can either become lower or higher. Interested in buying the HDD? That can be done here: Toshiba Canvio Advance. A review sample was provided by Toshiba for review purposes. This review is written by Jesper Ingemansson, and is based on his honest opinion about the external HDD.