Irvine (CA) – The next generation of portable hard drive capacity has arrived. Toshiba is first to move offer 200 GB of storage space in an external, portable 2.5” hard drive.

While it will be increasingly difficult for hard drives in the 1.8” class to defend themselves against approaching flash-based solid state disks (SSDs), the 2.5” arena appears to be seeing accelerating development as well as a moiré and more competitive environment.

Toshiba is now offering a 200 GB portable hard drive with USB 2.0 port, in addition to the 160 GB, 120 GB and 100 GB drives that have been available for some time. At least in theory, 200 GB will be enough to store close to 50,000 MP3s, more than 60,000 5 megapixel images, close to 90 DVD-quality movies or about 20 HD movies.  

The 200 GB drive is available for a suggested retail price of $230. The 160 GB model is priced at $180, the 120 GB version for $150 and the 100 GB drive for $130.

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