Apricorn EZ Bus Mini 40GB

Cables are the bane of ultra-portable devices, which is why we love the EZ Bus Mini. Measuring only 3.9 x 2.8 x 0.6 inches and weighing a mere five ounces, this 40GB drive really is svelte enough to slip into a pocket. Plus, there's no extra cord to lug around because the USB cable is already built into the back of the drive casing. The few inches of cable fit snugly into a recess and slip out with the flick of a fingertip. Add Apricorn's rubberized exterior and this is one ultra-convenient way to tote around 40GB.

The EZ Bus Mini performed well with a 10GB transfer time of 10 minutes and 59 seconds, which was good enough for second place among the 4,200-rpm drives we tested. Better yet, Apricorn bundles lots of software. There are applications for cloning your hard drive in case you need to recover from a data disaster (Clone EZ), creating a compressed image of a desktop hard drive volume (Image EZ), synchronization software (Second Copy 2000), and an encryption tool for locking up critical data with drag-and-drop simplicity (Cryptainer). True, Apricorn wants $110 more for its drive than Kanguru charges for the same capacity, but it's worth it when you consider its smaller size and all of the extras included.
www.apricorn.com