Page 10 - Conclusion
Yes, I "accidentally" dropped my Silicon Power Armor A65 1TB in the toilet. Yes, I ran it under the tap to wash it afterwards. And before you ask, yes -- it still works. Thanks to its rugged design, this USB hard drive can handle what life has to throw at it, or in this case, what you have to throw at life. The Armor A65 is MIL-STD-810G 516.6 Procedure IV and IP67 certified, meaning it is waterproof, dustproof, and shockproof. Now, for a lot of products that are waterproof, dustproof, and shockproof, unfortunately this also means they have an appearance and form factor that makes it practically theft proof. To be fair, the Silicon Armor A65 1TB is certainly not thin and light, but in my opinion, it is actually quite good looking. The triple layer protection added only a very reasonable amount of bulk and weight to the product, and the color coordination is well done to get the toughness message across. This is not to mention the rubber jacket makes it easy to grip, and it will not likely slide off your desk unintentionally. Performance-wise, it delivers as expected, thanks to the Samsung/Seagate Spinpoint M8 ST1000LM024 1TB hard drive inside. I also like the fact the HDD shuts off automatically with the idle timer, and you can encrypt the drive with the included software. That said, there is some room left for improvement. Firstly, the activity LED is really hard to see. Not only is it really dim, but it has virtually no off-axis viewing angle -- making it only visible if you look at it straight on in nominal office lighting. Secondly, the rubber jacket retains quite a bit of water, making it harder to dry after making a splash. Thirdly, the rubber jacket will not look good if exposed to dry, dusty places, until you clean it with something wet. At the end of the day, are these complaints quite minor in nature? Compared to the big overarching benefits the Silicon Power Armor A65 1TB provides, I think so. For about $80 at press time, the Silicon Power Armor A65 1TB is a USB 3.0 HDD that is reasonably fast, reasonably tough, reasonably good looking, and reasonably priced.
Silicon Power provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
APH Review Focus Summary:
8/10 means Definitely a very good product with drawbacks that are not likely going to matter to the end user.
7/10 means Great product with many advantages and certain insignificant drawbacks; but should be considered before purchasing.
-- Final APH Numeric Rating is 7.2/10
Please note that the APH Numeric Rating system is based off our proprietary guidelines in the Review Focus, and should not be compared to other sites.
Do not chuck your Silicon Power Armor A65 1TB in the toilet at home, but if you ever do, your drive and your data is safe. Trust us, we tried.
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Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look, Test System
3. Benchmark: AIDA64 Disk Benchmark
4. Benchmark: ATTO Disk Benchmark
5. Benchmark: Crystal Disk Mark 3.0
6. Benchmark: HD Tach 3.0.1.0
7. Benchmark: HD Tune Pro 4.60
8. Conclusion
