WD has its eyes on seizing some of the ultrabook storage market from SSDs with the new Scorpio Blue hard drive. At 7mm / 2.5 inches and engineered especially for mobile use, the Scorpio Blue makes a compelling case for why hard drives will remain relevant even with the slimming dimensions of 2012’s mobile market. Designed to be compatible with standard 9.5mm mobile drive slots, the Scorpio Blue will also have a market with manufacturers of larger notebooks.
WD has its eyes on seizing some of the ultrabook storage market from SSDs with the new Scorpio Blue hard drive. At 7mm / 2.5 inches and engineered especially for mobile use, the Scorpio Blue makes a compelling case for why hard drives will remain relevant even with the slimming dimensions of 2012’s mobile market. Designed to be compatible with standard 9.5mm mobile drive slots, the Scorpio Blue will also have a market with manufacturers of larger notebooks.
Low Power Consumption and SecurePark Shock Tolerance
Scorpio Blue’s most compelling new features come in energy efficiency and shock tolerance, two areas that highlight WD’s focus on the mobile market. WD’s internal testing indicates that Scorpio Blue offers lowest power consumption on the market, which is critical as manufacturers grow more competitive over efficiency and battery life.
WD is also shipping the Scorpio Blue with a new single-platter small form-factor, meaning that WD is able to guarantee 400Gs in shock tolerance.
WD’s SecurePark technology parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up, spin down, and when the drive is off. This is intended to ensure that the recording head never touches the disk surface, which WD says will result in improved reliability due to less head wear and improved non-operational shock tolerance.
Scorpio Blue’s Capacity Advantage
As a hard drive, the Scorpio Blue’s most formidable advantage over SSDs is capacity. Scorpio Blue hard drives are available in 500GB and 320GB capacities. And WD is making the most of the superior capacity of Scorpio Blue in applications such as Ultrabooks where volume is at a premium and drives are limited to a 7mm height.
9.5mm 750GB Scorpio Blue vs 7mm 500GB Scorpio Blue vs 12.7mm 1TB Scorpio Blue
Scorpio Blue Availability
The WD Scorpio Blue 7mm / 2.5-inch mobile hard drives are covered by a two-year limited warranty. MSRP for the 500 GB, model #WD5000LPVT is $99.99 USD and the 320 GB, model #WD3200LPVT is $79.99 USD.
