Verbatim has built up a solid reputation for storage media, flash media and hard drives over the years and the company has recently expanded its 3.5-inch desktop hard drives range with the newly designed External Hard Drive USB 2.0 line-up.

These come in four storage capacities - 500GB, 640GB, 750GB and 1TB - and we were able to get our hands on the more unusual 640GB version. Although it's essentially designed for desktop backup and use, its 940g weight and 202mm x 114mm x 40mm dimensions mean it could be slipped into an (admittedly sizeable) laptop case or into a briefcase when you're hurrying to a business presentation.

It comes in a chic, sleek, rectangular ‘black steel' casing so as to remain innocuous in the workplace, with just a solitary power light at one end and inputs for power and the USB 2.0 cable at the other. European travellers will be chuffed to see that the power lead comes with optional two- and three-prong adaptors.

Compatible with Windows Vista and Mac OS X 10.1 or higher and carrying a two-year warranty (plus free hot-line support), the Hard Drive comes with Nero BackItUp 2 Essentials software pre-installed, so you can do some instant backup of files, folders or the whole of your main hard drive as soon as you've plugged the USB lead into your machine. It's all plug-‘n'-play so it's just a matter of seconds before the driver is installed and then you're ready to go.

The high-speed SATA hard disk inside the casing delivers 7,200rpm with transfer speeds of up to 480Mbps and with a buffer size of 8MB. One noticeable feature is that as well as blending well into a workstation, the hard drive is refreshingly quiet and also remains remarkably cool during operation, thanks to the ventilation grilles on the back of the drive.

Obviously for such a low price point, you won't have the variety of connections (e.g. FireWire or eSATA) offered by some more expensive drives, yet transfer speeds seemed about average for a USB 2.0 connection. For example, an 88MB folder with multiple files transferred in around 9 seconds and a 1.5GB game installed in around three minutes (not counting the inevitable upgrades and patches).

Ultimately it will probably be the size of your budget that will have the final say, but if you want the ability to back up all your vital files, photos and movies in a no-nonsense yet cool exterior, this new 3.5-inch hard drive should be a reliable companion. Shame about the uninspiring name, though.

There are faster external hard drives on the market, but for good looks, brand reliability and quietness and coolness of operation, it would be hard to find a better option at such a low price point.