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Toshiba Canvio Flex 4TB: 30-second review
Specs
Capacity: 1, 2 and 4TB
Interface: USB 3.0
Transfer Rate: Up to 5 Gb/s (USB 3.0)
Drive Format: exFAT
Dimensions: 80 x 111 x 19.5 mm
Colour: Silver
Weight: 210 g
It’s been a while since I last used a traditional portable hard drive, and these days, with so many portable SSDs offering large-capacity options, the place for a portable HDD is ever diminishing. However, while these drives do require you’re a little bit more careful due to the mechanical drive inside, there’s no denying that they are still considerably cheaper than the SSD equivalent.
The Toshiba Canvio Flex 4TB HDD is a great-looking drive, although you can instantly see from the size, weight, and scale that it is considerably larger than an SSD equivalent. However, with a full plastic casing with metallic finish, it does look nice and stylish.
However there are some design features that you’d expect as part of good design that are missing, such as rubber feet or pads on the base to stop it from slipping, and up to date connection type and front facing status LED.
The connection type whilst USB-C ready is actually USB 3.0 micro-B style, with a cable enabling the more modern interface connection. Not only is this older technology with far slower transfer rates than even USB 3.2, which are far more common, but over the years, I have found this to be one of the least reliable connectors of any portable hard drive on the market.
The connector itself is just far too shallow and delicate for any type of portable hard drive, so whilst this is a portable hard drive by name, it’s best used at home in a safe location where you’re not going to be moving around.
Whilst there are limitations, and the technology used in this drive is older, it does still have it’s place, and you have to take into consideration that it is tried and tested. Toshiba, being the brand that it is, supplies good, high-quality HDDs, and as such, this drive comes with a three-year warranty.
Also, in all the benchmark results, performance was consistent, and even when left running for several hours, there was little to no drop in performance. This shows that if you are backing up large amounts of data to this drive, it should be able to handle that and store it safely for a good number of years.
The Toshiba Canvio Flex does feel dated in its use of technology compared with the latest SSDs and even highquality HDDs, but if you need one of the best external hard drives on a budget and this is the most you can afford for a high-capacity storage, then it is a great choice.
Toshiba Canvio Flex 4TB: Price & availability
The Toshiba Canvio Flex portable hard drive can be found for around $130 / £120, making it one of the cheapest high-capacity portable hard drives on the market. It can be bought from a variety of online retailers as well as on the high street and in many electrical stores.
Toshiba Canvio Flex 4TB: Design & build
The design of the Toshiba Canvio Flex 4TB is simple, with an attractive plastic case finished with a silver metallic coating. While the drive isn’t big, it is slightly larger than what I’ve become used to with the latest SSDs, measuring 80 x 111 x 19.5 mm and weighing 210g. So, whilst not large or heavy, it is slightly bulkier than your average SSD.
While the top of the casing is silver metallic plastic, there is a little bit of a design accent with a black section at the rear of the drive and across the base. It’s a shame that, unfortunately, there are no rubber feet to stop the drive from slipping around, and as this is made out of plastic, that is something you will need to be aware of, especially if you are thinking about using this away from the home or office.
Like many drives of this type, there is no status LED on the front. Instead, if you flip it around with the cable inserted into the drive, you just see a blue glow highlighting that it’s connected. When the drive is connected, this light shows as a solid blue, and as soon as any files are transferred to or from the drive, it starts to flicker to indicate that the drive is in use.
The connection between the drive and your computer is made through a USB 3.0 micro-B connector to either a USB Type-C or Type-A, with both cables ready for use in the box.
The USB 3.0 micro-B connector is one of my least favourite USB connectors, and over the years, I have found it to be the most prone to breaking. The connector itself is relatively shallow, so once again, this is something to be aware of. It really does highlight that, while it’s a perfectly decent connector for transfer rates for this technology, you will have to be a little bit more careful than with some of the other connectors to ensure that it stays put.
Essentially the design, technology, capacity and price make this a great portable storage option for the home or office where the drive will see little movement or be subjected to the rigours that we’re used to putting today’s portable SSDs through.
Toshiba Canvio Flex 4TB: Features
One of the great things about having a portable hard drive rather than a more modern SSD is that it has full backward compatibility with both old and new machines, including other peripherals such as smartphones and tablet devices. As the technology has been around for years, this essentially means it will be compatible with pretty much any electronic device that accepts an external hard drive connection.
When the drive arrives, it is pre-formatted for PC in the exFAT format. This means that you can use it between both Mac and PC systems without needing to reformat. However, if you primarily use a Mac, it is very quick and easy to reformat it to the APFS file system, likewise NTFS for Windows.
A really feature in the box is the fact that Toshiba has included both a USB 3.0 micro-B to USB Type-C and a USB Type-A cable. This means that whether you have a new or old machine, this portable hard drive should connect without you needing to search around or buy an additional adapter. Again, it provides wide compatibility.
The design is also nice and simple. There’s nothing flashy or garish about it, and whilst I wish it had some rubber feet or a pad to stop it from slipping around, which meant I had to review this indoors and at a desk, the design itself is clean and minimal. If you’re working at home on your desktop, this is a really nice small external hard drive to store your images – if you prefer to work outside even in a van then this is not so great.
Along with the drive comes a three-year limited warranty, which is a nice touch from Toshiba and provides some peace of mind that this drive should last. However, it’s always a good idea to ensure that you have a backup solution as well.
In this review, I’ve been looking at the 4TB version, but there are also 1TB and 2TB versions of the drive. These have slightly different specifications due to the smaller hard drive installed.
Toshiba Canvio Flex 4TB: Performance
Benchmarks
These tests were carried out on a MacBook Pro M1 Max with Thunderbolt 4.
CrystalDiskMark read: 145.87MB/s
CrystalDiskMark write: 153.99MB/s
ATTO Disk Benchmark Read: 149.42MB/s
ATTO Disk Benchmark Write: 146.65MB/s
AJA System Test Lite Read: 136MB/s
AJA System Test Lite Write: 121MB/s
AS SSD Benchmark Read: 133.76MB/s
AS SSD Benchmark Write: 117.66MB/s
After looking many SSDs over the last year, I forgot how much of a difference there is between the latest technology and more traditional mechanical hard disk drives. While the capacity is still right up there at 4TB, when it comes to transfer rates, they hover around the 150MB per second mark, which, when you’re transferring large video files or images, will slow down workflow.
If you’re thinking about this hard drive as a cheap option for backing up your files on-site, then I would spend the extra and get a portable SSD. However, if you’re in the office and just looking to back up all your images and documents on a small portable hard drive that you can tuck away, then this is an absolutely superb option. It will take longer for the files to copy across, but at about 120 MB/s per second write speed through the test, you can just leave it working to transfer those files.
One of the other uses you might be considering for this portable hard drive is as a working drive for video or images. Whilst that is possible for images, when it comes to video, the lower transfer rates make editing a little bit tricky, and you will start to encounter dropped frames. This highlights once again that this is better as a drive for archiving your files rather than using it as a working drive.
However, you have to remember that this drive is a lot cheaper than the latest SSDs. While the storage capacity of 4TB is in line with many of the latest SSDs at almost twice the price, the transfer rates are far slower, so you should think about how you use this drive slightly differently.
Whereas the latest SSDs can be used as working drives, this portable HDD is far better suited for backing up files or keeping on your desktop as an easy backup solution for your main computer.
At the end of the test, the performance was okay— in line with the majority of drives from a few years ago but far behind what we would expect from a portable hard drive today. While the drive is portable due to its size and weight, once again, I would be slightly wary due to the older technology, which is more likely to fail if dropped. However, if you’re just looking for a small portable hard drive to use around the home or office, then this could be a great solution at an exceptionally cheap price.
Should you buy the Toshiba Canvio Flex 4TB?
4TB of storage for the price seems like a great deal, and if you are working on a budget, then this could be a great option—as long as you’re not looking for a drive to take everywhere with you, but rather one to keep on your desktop or pop in a drawer to keep files safe.
The transfer rates are okay but limited by that old technology, and again, I really am not a fan of the USB 3.0 micro-B connector.
With so many great SSDs available, and considering that you can pick up a 2TB portable SSD for around the same price as this drive, I personally would drop the capacity and go for the newer technology. However, if you do need this capacity, then at this price, it is a good option, and with Toshiba’s three-year limited warranty, it does provide some reassurance over the quality and longevity of the drive.
| Row 0 – Cell 0 | Row 0 – Cell 1 | Row 0 – Cell 2 |
|
Value |
There’s no doubting the value, with your money getting a huge amount of capacity for not a great deal. |
4 |
|
Design |
The design is basic, and aesthetically it looks okay—I just wish they had included some rubber feet. |
3 |
|
Features |
This is a portable HDD with features stripped right back to make it as affordable as possible. |
3 |
|
Performance |
The performance is average for a portable HDD and good enough for backing up and archiving files. |
3.5 |
|
Total |
If you need lots of capacity but don’t have a lot of money, then this is a great choice. |
3 |
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
For more storage solutions, we rounded up the best portable SSDs.
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