Freecom has unveiled its external "Hard Drive XS 3.0," the first mainstream storage product to support SuperSpeed USB 3.0. Being equipped with the latest USB spec, Freecom's external drive doesn't disappoint, with approximate transfer rates of 130MB/s. "We now can transfer a 5GB movie in just 38 seconds – it's unbelievably fast," said Axel Lucassen, managing director of the Dutch storage company.
Lucassen went on to boast that in addition to being fast, the Hard Drive XS 3.0 will be the "safest storage solution on the market," as it features high-speed AES 256-bit hardware encryption. The drive will be fairly priced too, with a 1TB model running about 99 GBP (or $160). Unfortunately, that does not include the company's USB 3.0 controller card, which costs an additional 23 GBP for desktop systems, and 26 GBP for notebooks.
The company will provide drivers for Windows XP and Vista, and Windows 7 should supposedly have native driver support – Mac users are out of luck, though. Freecom's Hard Drive XS 3.0 will be available in Europe from mid-November in 1TB, 1.5TB and 2TB flavors.