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Last year, Microsoft finally allowed users to hook up an external hard drive to the Xbox One, providing the option to boost the limited 500GB storage capacity of the internal HDD with much larger and potentially faster drives. Partnering with Seagate, an officially branded 2TB Xbox-branded 'Game Drive' is now available, validated for use with Xbox One and Xbox 360. Priced at £79 in the UK and around $100 in the US, this licensed product is anything from £15 to £19 more expensive than Seagate's own USB 2TB portable drives, so the question is whether the price premium offers users anything extra over and above its rather striking Xbox-green plastics.To begin with, let's explain the major concern surrounding this product in a little more depth. Forget USB enclosures for a moment and let's concentrate on the drive inside: Seagate happens to produce one of the very best, most keenly-priced 2.5-inch hard drives on the market - the Samsung Momentus Spinpoint ST2000LM003 (if you're wondering, Seagate acquired Samsung's hard drive business). It's ideal for PS4 upgrades because it offers a lot of storage in a 9mm-high chassis - just the right size for the Sony console (other high capacity drives can be 12mm or higher, meaning they are not recommended). Now, this drive's power efficiency and small form-factor are such that Seagate incorporates this winning design into other 'passport'-style USB enclosures and remarkably, these expansion drives usually sell at a lower price than just buying the drive itself. In fact, the ST2000ML003 is so good that Seagate uses it in at least two other portable HDD products - not just the official Xbox drive.
Prise apart from the plastic casing of the Xbox hard drive, and you'll find exactly the same Samsung unit as the one found in the cheaper £65 Seagate STEA2000400 expansion drive. Indeed, even the USB to SATA bridge inside is the same, as is the metallic insulation shroud. The ST2000LM003 drive is also found in last year's STBX2000401 Seagate offering, the expansion upgrade we used for our cheeky PS4 2TB upgrade guide. Availability on the older version generally seems to be declining now, but Amazon often offers it for £60 when it has stock, and has done for over a year now - £5 cheaper than its replacement and £19 cheaper than the official Xbox 2TB drive.
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