You get two cables with the Fast: one is the same 0.5m cable, while the other is 0.9m long with an extra USB 3.0 host plug in case your PC is older and can't provide enough power over a single line. This one comes only in black, and has a far simpler look, with a smooth top and textured sides and bottom. It's obviously thick enough for two drives to fit one on top of another, but isn't much wider or deeper than the Slim model.

On the other hand, the Backup Plus Fast is quite a chunky device. You could easily slip this drive into a pocket and carry it around all day. The sides are glossy black, while the bottom is textured for a non-slip grip. Our review unit had a metallic red finish on top, which was quite striking. It's pretty much as small as a 2.5-inch hard drive enclosure can be, which makes us wonder how shock-resistant it actually is. The Slim comes in four different colours, and reminds us very much of old-fashioned tin boxes. Of course, the two are very different in terms of weight and portability, but they're intended for very different buyers. While the Backup Plus Slim is pretty much a basic drive in a very small enclosure, the Backup Plus Fast is actually two drives sandwiched into one body.

We put both to the test, to help buyers decide which one is better suited to their needs.

The good thing is users have a choice between safety and speed. Oddly, of the two products we have in for review, one is rather unsuitable for backing up data to. Seagate's most recent portable storage products are named Backup Plus, recognising the importance of this fact. You never know what might happen to your PC, hard drives, online accounts and portable devices, so it's just good sense to make sure you have multiple copies of everything that you consider irreplaceable - preferably on different media types and in different locations. There's never a bad time to take a backup.

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