Skip to main content

Seagate's new super-thin, 2TB hard disk proves mechanical storage isn't dead yet

Seagate is now selling a two terabyte hard drive drive that’s only 7 millimeters thick, making it possible for ultrabooks to include a staggering amount of space without compromising on size.

The standard laptop hard drive has been around 9.5mm thick for most of recent computing history. That’s changing: the laptop market is one of increasingly thin devices, a trend that broadly favors solid state drives over conventional hard drives. Without mechanical parts to worry about, SSDs can be downright tiny while also offering impressive speeds. Because of this ultrabooks sporting conventional drives are somewhat of a rarity.

Recommended Videos

But conventional drives have always offered higher capacity at a lower price point, and Seagate is hoping that offering 2TB of space at a 7mm thickness will convince laptop makers to offer conventional hard drives in thinner laptops.

“Laptops today must satisfy consumer demand for fast computing and high capacity storage capabilities on one hand, while also offering compelling designs and slim styling on the other,” said Matt Rutledge, Seagate’s senior vice president. “With the introduction of Seagate’s new Mobile HDD, laptop manufacturers no longer need to make tradeoffs between these seemingly competing mandates.”

Capacity won’t be an issue, and neither will size, but speed might be. Seagate’s own spec sheets says that the drive will have a maximum I/O data transfer rate of 600 megabytes per second, and a maximum sustainable transfer rate of 100MB/s. That’s well below what SSDs can offer. Then again, 2TB of storage space is quite a bit more than any affordable SSD can offer, so as always this is all about tradeoffs.

It’s possible, given this drive’s size, that it might allow dual-drive configurations in the future. Larger 15-inch notebooks sometimes take that approach, but rarely thin models. Perhaps a 7mm hard disk will change that. This is speculation on our part, however — nothing in Seagate’s announcement says this will happen.

Whatever the drive’s merrits, Seagate isn’t directly pitching consumers at this point. The 7mm drive is only being sold to OEMs as of this writing.

Justin Pot
Justin's always had a passion for trying out new software, asking questions, and explaining things – tech journalism is the…
Pocket is about to close. Use this read-it-later app instead
A woman looking at her phone.

Read-it-later app Pocket is closing down in just a week’s time, so if you’re still using it, now’s the time to switch to a similar app.

As an avid user of Pocket pretty much since it launched in 2007 as Read It Later, I felt a little sad to receive a message in May informing me that it would be shutting down on July 8.

Read more
A coding blunder just ruined a moment of joy for lottery winners
Eurojackpot lottery slips.

Imagine the joy of being notified of a huge lottery win. What would be the first thing you’d do? Get the champagne in? Book a fancy vacation? Call your boss and tell him where to go?

And then imagine being informed that the notification had, in fact, been sent in error. Well, you can always send the booze back and cancel the holiday, but trying to convince your boss that you were just joking ... well, that may be a bigger challenge.

Read more
This TP-Link Wi-Fi 6 router is 45% off in early Prime Day deal
The TP-Link AX1800 Archer AX21 Wi-FI 6 Router on a white background.

If you're planning to buy a new router to improve your home's Wi-Fi network, the good news is that you don't have to wait for Prime Day 2025 to take advantage of huge discounts on router deals from Amazon. Here's an excellent offer — the TP-Link Archer AX21 with an eye-catching 45% discount, which drops its price from $100 to just $55. The $45 in savings will only be available for a limited time though, so you better act fast and proceed with your purchase immediately as this early Prime Day deal may disappear at any moment.

Buy Now

Read more