INTRODUCTION

    With 3.5" hard disk drives recently hitting 30TB in capacity (36TB models have already been announced) and consumer oriented M.2 NVMe SSDs being available at 8TB for many years now (enterprise grade SSDs have almost reached 250TB in comparison) it's strange to see 2.5" hard disk drives still stuck at 6TB. As a matter of fact, even 6TB 2.5" hard disk drives are not available in large numbers and so 4/5TB models represent the vast majority of models currently available in the market. Toshiba released their latest Canvio Flex line of 2.5" USB 3.2 Gen 1 Portable Hard Drives back in January of this year and today on my test bench I have the 4TB capacity model.

    Toshiba Electronics Europe GmbH (TEE) offers European consumers and businesses a wide variety of hard disk drive (HDD) products plus semiconductor solutions for automotive, industrial, IoT, motion control, telecoms, networking, consumer and white goods applications. Next to HDDs, the company’s broad portfolio encompasses power semiconductors and other discrete devices ranging from diodes to logic ICs, optical semiconductors as well as microcontrollers and application specific standard products (ASSPs) amongst others. In addition, TEE offers SCiB™ battery cells and modules with lithium titanium oxide (LTO) for heavy-duty applications.

    Toshiba released the very first version of their Canvio Flex drives back in 2020 (HDTX1x) and since it was quite popular among consumers, they decided to refresh the line thus releasing a new version in January 2025 (HDTX2x). Both lines featured 1/2/4TB capacities with USB 3.2 Gen 1 connectivity and as for differences between them we have an redesigned enclosure (only in silver color this time over) with an blue activity LED that stands out more, compatibility with smartphones and tablets due to its USB-C connector (compatibility list is available here) and as for the USB controller itself it now sports an always on mode for faster access when used (don't know what specific 2.5" drive the 2020 version used inside so I can't compare it with the MQ04UBB400 used in the newer version - probably the same in both models however).  Finally, as always Toshiba covers the entire Canvio Flex line with a 3-year limited warranty.