CNET: Best hard drives and storage devices of 2016

It wasn’t that long ago that your options for data storage consisted mainly of various hard disk drives of internal, external and portable variants. With the advent of cost-effective flash memory that’s all changed, and while there are still lots of HDDs on the market, the solid state drive (SSD) has taken over a large chunk of the market. Here are four of our favorites, from both categories.

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Samsung Portable SSD T1

Product Review: http://www.cnet.com/products/samsung-portable-ssd-t1/#ftag=CAD187281f

CNET rating: 4.5 stars out of 5 (Outstanding)

The good: The Samsung Portable SSD T1 is tiny yet super-fast. The drive has up to 1TB of storage space, supports data encryption and works with both Mac and Windows.

The bad: The drive is expensive and has only a three-year warranty.

The cost: $347.99 to $429.00 (1TB)

The bottom line: Other than its cost, the Samsung Portable SSD T1 is what any portable drive should be.

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Samsung Portable SSD T3

Product Review: http://www.cnet.com/products/samsung-portable-ssd-t3/#ftag=CAD187281f

CNET rating: 4.5 stars out of 5 (Outstanding)

The good: The Portable SSD T3 is super compact, rugged, fast and can have up to 2TB of storage space. The drive has a USB-C port, allowing it to work with more devices than other portable drives.

The bad: The T3 is a tad larger and slightly slower than its predecessor, the T1, while costing more. Its three-year warranty is short for a storage device at this price.

The cost: $429.99 (1TB)

The bottom line: Compact, rugged, fast and capacious, the Portable SSD T3 is an excellent portable storage device to take on the go.

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WD My Passport Ultra (Spring 2015)

Product Review: http://www.cnet.com/products/wd-my-passport-ultra-spring-2015/#ftag=CAD187281f

CNET rating: 4.0 stars out of 5 (Excellent)

The good: The new and compact My Passport Ultra portable drive offers up to 3TB of storage space, delivers fast performance and comes in many color options. The drive works right out of the box, features hardware encryption and includes helpful backup software.

The bad: The WD Backup software can’t backup the entire system as an image and won’t backup based on changes in real time. The new drive’s performance, though quite fast, was a bit slower than the previous version.

The cost: $128.99 to $154.30 (3TB)

The bottom line: The WD checks the boxes on everything you’d want in a portable storage drive, and with a stylish multiple color option, it’s an easy recommendation.

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Transcend SSD370S

Product Review: http://www.cnet.com/products/transcend-ssd370s/#ftag=CAD187281f

CNET rating: 4.0 stars out of 5 (Excellent)

The good: The Transcend SSD370S delivers fast performance at low cost, has high durability and features data encryption.

The bad: The three-year guarantee is short compared to the 5- to 10-year warranties of competing drives.

The cost: $316.00 to $385.51 (1TB)