X'S-Drive 2 XL VP2260 Digital Storage Device Review

The X'S-Drive 2 XL, a 9 in 1 portable storage device is about as simple as they get. It has been designed this way, to fulfill the straightforward need of backing up your memory card/s to its 20 gigabyte hard drive while you're traveling or away from your computer. There is no colour screen to check your photos or confusing graphical user interface, which besides making it easy to use has the effect of keeping the price down to around £140. It's so simple in fact that the only buttons on it are the on/off button and a copy button.

Specifications

Memory cards Supported	Compactflash Card type I / type II (CF) Hitachi Microdrive Smartmedia Card (SM) Memory Stick (MS) Memory Stick Pro (MS Pro) Secure Digital (SD) MultiMediaCard (MMC) XD Picture cards (XD) (Including Type-M)
Blue backlight LCD Display	LCD displays: Amount of battery power File transfer status Main storage (HDD) and Memory card capacity Memory card / HDD error indicator USB Access Charge Status
Hard Disk	Supports data transmission from memory card(s) to built-in 2.5 Hard drive Backup all kinds of files as the 2.5' external HDD, USB card reader / writer
Power Source	Internal Power: Li-ion rechargeable battery 3.7V / 1200mAh Re-chargeable Li-Ion Battery External Power: 5V adapter (2.5A) (100/240V)
Battery life	2 hours (full charge)
Download interface	Fast USB 2.0 Interface port (Backward compatibility with USB 1.1)
Download Speed	Up to 480Mbps
Filesystem	Support Standard FAT 12/16/32
PC Peripheral	USB 2.0 Interface with standard storage device
OS Supported	Windows 98/98SE, Win 2000 (with driver) Win ME/XP, Linux Kernel version 2.4 or above without driver Mac OS 8.6 - 9.0 with driver Mac OS 10.0.1 and above without driver
Storage Temperature	-40oC / 70oC
Operating Temperature	0oC / 70oC
Humidity	90% RH
Weight	264g (including HD & Battery)
Dimensions	116 x 78 x 23 mm

What you get in the box
Besides the device itself, you also get a smart black Velcro case, the charger / power adapter, USB cable, USB driver, instruction manual, screwdriver and small four screws. The screwdriver allows you to change the hard drive contained within.

Whilst the case looks good, the sides of it are elastic and we found that when putting the device back in its case we sometimes hit the power button accidentally, causing some battery wastage. If you don't realise you've done this, the drive will shut-down automatically after 80 seconds, which saves you completely draining your battery unknowingly!

Card compatibility
With your card inserted, the device display shows how much capacity is used on your card and how much is free on the drive. During copying the device shows a percentage progress number. When the copying is finished, the drive shuts down after a 80 second delay. When you come to move the photos from the X'S Drive to your PC, the USB 2 interface means copying is very fast, much faster than the copying from your memory card to the X'S Drive.

Verdict
Whilst we had this product for review, it was taken on a two week trip through four countries in Europe. During that time it performed faultlessly and withstood the baggage handling of three airports. We have little hesitation therefore in recommending it as a low cost and straightforward backup storage device.

In summary the main positive points of the X'S-Drive 2 XL VP2260 are:
Easy to use, with good features such as auto-power off and progress indicator
Low cost, when compared to equivalent capacity in memory cards
Solidly built and quite stylishly designed

Negative points are:
No sealing over memory slots
Power switch can be too easily inadvertently pressed

Latest prices: You can pick up the 40gig (£129) and 80gig (£179) versions of the X'S Drive VP2260 from our Warehouse Express partner shop here.