Review: OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mini – The Perfect Data Solution

External storage is an essential tool for the modern computer user to utilize. With the sizes of files rapidly increasing as the years go on, it’s imperative to have more storage to hold your precious data. Life is also very completed and accidents can happen. Backups of your important data are needed as your computer equipment can get lost, broken or stolen.  This is where the OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mini hard drive comes in.

The OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mini provides users with the functionality of a conventional hard drive, but gives off a sleek Apple-like design and is user upgradable. This design choice allows for the OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mini to blend in seamlessly to the Apple eco-system, almost feeling like a mini Mac Pro. The small size of the OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mini allows for easy transportation, letting the user take their data wherever they go without needing to bring their entire computer.

In addition to conventional data storage, the OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mini also works great at a backup drive. I personally bring my MacBook Pro with me whenever I go to work, creating the possibility of my MacBook Pro getting lost or damaged. If I didn’t have a reliable data backup solution, all my data would be gone. However with the OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mini, I can utilize the Time Machine backup feature in MacOS and be assured I always have multiple copies of my important data.

Online storage solutions (while very good) can’t beat having physical hard drive. Data leaks, expiring subscriptions and power outages can negatively effect your data. Having a physical storage solution on the other hand requires no subscription costs, no chance of your data getting leaked and you can be assured your data is always available to you at a moments notice.

USB-C provides lighting fast data transfer speeds with a 10 gigabit per second transfer rate. However, OWC hasn’t forgotten about computers with legacy USB-A ports. Attached to the included USB-C cable is a USB-C to USB-A adapter. This allows for quick USB-C to USB-A conversion, if the user desires to use their OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mini with a computer that does not support USB-C compatibility. The adapter being physically attached to the cable is also a nice addition, making it impossible for the user to misplace. The included USB-C is also modular, making it easy to replace if it gets damaged.

The OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mini comes in many storage sizes, and has the option for the user to choose between a physical hard drive and an SSD. But perhaps one of the best features of the OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mini is the ability to swap out the 2.5-inch SATA drive inside with a different 2.5-inch SATA drive if desired. This not only allows for the user to use multiple different drives, but allows the OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mini to be upgraded if the user decides they want more storage.

The OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mini also include a complementary 3 year limited warranty, giving the user full confidence that no manufacturer related defects will occur with the drive. With prices of the OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mini starting at $42.99 for the DIY enclosure (no hard drive included) and $94.00 for the 1TB 5400RPM HDD model, the OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mini makes for a useful and affordable external hard drive solution.