LaCie 2TB Portable SSD (2021) review

Seagate’s premium sub-brand costs more but hardly justifies the extra outlay

LaCie 2TB Portable SSD (2021) Review Hero
(Image: © Future)

TechRadar Verdict

To put it succinctly, the LaCie 2TB Portable SSD is too expensive for its own good. Yes, it comes with the data recovery services but so do cheaper and equally fast Seagate SSD drives of the same capacity. Can this conundrum be solved? We’re not sure.

Pros

  • +

    It looks very nice

  • +

    It is solidly built

  • +

    Long warranty

  • +

    Solid performance

  • +

    Comes with free data recovery services

Cons

  • -

    Shortish USB Type-C cable

  • -

    No IP rating

  • -

    Too expensive for what it is

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Two minute review

The LaCie Portable SSD is a nice looking 2TB portable solid state drive that comes with a free data recovery service from Seagate, a generous 3-year warranty but also a rather steep price tag for what it offers, which is USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds and nothing more. As such it is a tough sell against the likes of the Kingston XS2000 or the SanDisk 2TB Extreme portable SSD, both being significantly cheaper without any performance penalties. That said, some might argue that the data recovery service alone is worth it, something that’s unique amongst mainstream solid state drive vendors (although other less stylish Seagate products - like the OneTouch have the same feature). Which brings us to the real question; are we paying a premium for the LaCie name?

Pricing and availability

The model tested (STKS2000400) has a suggested retail price of £339.99 but it is available from Amazon UK for £269 and from Amazon US for $330 respectively. Two smaller models are available, a 500GB and a 1TB one, on sale respectively for $100 and $170 at Amazon US and £90 and £185 at Amazon UK. As expected, the largest model has the lowest cost per Terabyte. We’d expect a larger 4TB model at some point as well. Note that this drive range occupies the entry-level segment in LaCie’s portfolio.

Design

(Image credit: Future)

Design

Compared to some of its predecessors like the 2019 edition (LaCie Portable SSD 2TB), it is more compact although we’re not sure about the thought process that convinced the designers to choose the parallelogram as the inspiration. It’s worth - at this stage - mentioning the French origins of LaCie or La Compagnie and how aesthetics was at the core of its mission.

Before its acquisition by Seagate in 2014, the company had carved itself a lucrative niche amongst like-minded designers (and creative professionals) looking for creatively-inspired peripherals that could perform, regardless of the price. Trendsetters like Neil Poulton or Philip Stark collaborated with LaCie to design some iconic products. So the adage, beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, holds truer than ever in this case.

USB-C Port

(Image credit: Future)

The drive itself is presented as a monoblock of machined aluminum with a Type-C connector at one end, a status light and the LaCie logo etched. Minimalist and stylish at the same time, it is also small enough to be carried around unnoticed (10.6mm x 50mm x 80mm for a weight of 45g). Inside the box is a USB Type-C cable, a 1-month subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud and details for Seagate’s Rescue Data Recovery services.

Parallelogram

(Image credit: Future)

Performance and in use

The LaCie 2TB Portable SSD is built to last and should be able to withstand shocks and knocks. Just be mindful that the metal surface can and will get scratched if it falls on something that’s abrasive (think concrete floor). Note that it doesn’t have any IP rating, which means that it is not waterproof or dustproof. That puts it at a disadvantage compared to others.

Benchmarks

Here’s how the LaCie 2TB Portable SSD performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

CrystalDiskMark: 1049MBps (read); 1039MBps (write)

Atto: 1004MBps (read, 256mb);  1009MBps (write, 256mb)

AS SSD: 922MBps (seq read); 933MBps (seq write)

AJA: 887MBps (read); 951Mbps (write)

When it comes to sheer numerical tests, the drive itself performed in line with our expectations. Seagate promised read speeds up to 1.05GBps and write speeds up to 1GBps. We notched 1.05MBps (read) on CrystalDiskMark and 1.04GBps on write using the same benchmark. Other benchmarks reported slower numbers while a single 10GB file was transferred in 17.6 seconds (or a real life speed of 574MBps), slightly faster than the Seagate OneTouch Pro.

We suspect that the latter and the LaCie drive share at least some components. The storage device didn’t warm up significantly during our tests and perhaps the only small complaint we could put through is the short length of the bundled cable.

Side View

(Image credit: Future)

Should I buy the LaCie 2TB Portable SSD (2021)?

Buy it if:

You want a storage device that has a great design. We won’t lie, the drive looks great but that’s a personal opinion and one that, unsurprisingly, doesn’t have any influence on the actual performance of the device. But yes, this LaCie drive is solid and built to last.

Data recovery services are a must to keep your data safe. Losing data is not fun especially if you’re a creative professional. Fortunately, Seagate’s data recovery services can come to the rescue although we’d still advise you to go for a cloud backup solution.

Don’t buy it if:

You want enterprise grade protection out of the box. For that Seagate has another product called the LaCie Mobile SSD Secure which is basically the same drive with enhanced security. Oh and it is only on sale at Apple.com. Alternatively one feature that LaCie could add to its drive would be a fingerprint reader similar to that found on the Samsung T7 Touch.

You want the fastest or the cheapest drive. The Sandisk Extreme, which we mentioned before, retails for only $230 at the time of writing with the faster USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 version costs about $300. The Crucial X8 is even cheaper at $190. For ultimate speed though, you will need a Thunderbolt 3 drive and the most affordable 2TB version is the $360 Sabrent Rocket XTRM-Q.

You want a waterproof drive. This drive doesn’t have any IP rating. Coincidentally, LaCie has one called Professional SSD which has a bright yellow rubber sleeve, an IP67 rating and an industry-leading five-year warranty with data recovery services for just as long. 

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Desire Athow
Managing Editor, TechRadar Pro

Désiré has been musing and writing about technology during a career spanning four decades. He dabbled in website builders and web hosting when DHTML and frames were in vogue and started narrating about the impact of technology on society just before the start of the Y2K hysteria at the turn of the last millennium.