Barely a month after getting our hands on the WD TV, our friends from Western Digital recently brought in a few new goodies from their stable, which included the My Passport Elite, My Passport Studio, and My Book Mac Edition.

Unlike the WD TV which had become an office celebrity in an instant, the new external HDDs somehow made a silent entrance within Hardware Zone’s premises. This is somehow unsurprising, considering that almost everyone, if not all, in the office already has a My Passport (Essential) of his own. So what surprises do these new external HDDs have up their sleeves? We decided to unpack each of them one at a time for an out-of-the box experience (OOBE).

My Book Mac Edition

Starting with the biggest among the three (that is, in terms of physique and storage size), the My Book Mac Edition is a totally different animal, nonetheless it also shares some similarities with the PC-oriented Mirror Edition which once appeared in HWM’s Reviewed section, November of last year. First and foremost, the Mac Edition only carries a whopping terabyte of storage within – just the half of what the Mirror can throw in.

The front and sides of the Mac are made up of lightweight plastic with a matte-black finish, different from the Mirror’s piano-black finish. Also, we can see here the thicker outline of the Mirror, insinuating the presence of two 1TB hard drives within.

 The top, rear and bottom sides of both models are punctured with Morse code. The Mac shows these on a silver surface, while the Mirror flaunts these on a black exterior. If deciphered, these codes will mean personal, reliable, innovative, simple, and design – words that you could suitably associate with a My Book external HDD.

Once powered, the LED indicator on the front of the Mac turns white, while on the Mirror it turns blue.

 We looked at the Mac from every angle, but we didn’t find any power button on it. Not like the Mirror, the Mac has only a mini-USB interface and a power adapter port on its back.

Aside from the drive itself, the package also includes a manual, USB cable and power adapter. 

My Passports: Elite And Studio

Our other two guests are 500GB, 2.5-inch portable HDDs that appear very similar to one another. But taking a closer look at them, you will find a lot of physical differences. The My Passport Elite is formatted for PC. On the other hand, the My Passport Studio is formatted for Mac. These portable HDDs are also available in 250GB, 320GB and 400GB storage capacities.