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OneModern S8 – Fingerprint Portable SSD – First Look & Review

By Mark's Tech Blogs

9th September 2021

The OneModern S8 is a new fingerprint portable SSD hard drive which has just launched on Kickstarter. We were lucky enough to get our hands on an advanced pre-release of the device and after using it for a week here are our thoughts.

What is the OneModern S8?

The OneModern S8 is a portable solid state hard drive that aims to be both secure and fast. It has the option to apply 256bit encryption to your data, boasts transfer speeds of up to 540MB/S (thanks to USB C and the SSD) and allows you to unlock it with a password or your fingerprint (with up to 10 fingerprints able to be set).

It comes in a choice of 500gb (currently $99 on the Kickstarter Early Bird) or 1Tb for $159 which gives you plenty of space for backing up your essentials.

It’s currently compatible with Windows, Mac and Android devices with the promise of iOS support coming in the future (but you’ll need a dongle to connect it to lightning ports).

The Design of the OneModern S8

The OneModern S8 is one of the smallest portable hard drives I’ve ever seen and fits comfortably in your hand. It’s made out of a mix of 100% recycled aluminium and tempered glass which makes it look modern but also keeps it cool for maximum data transfer speeds.

The front of the device has the OneModern logo on and the fingerprint sensor and the top has a USB C port. In the box you also get a short USB-C to USB-C cable and a carry case which holds both the cable and drive (and still fits into a pocket). It comes in a choice of black or blue (personally I think the black looks best with its glossy front and back and matte edges)

OneModern S8
OneModern S8 Carry Case

Setting up the drive

The OneModern S8 is plug and play which means you can just plug it into your computer and then drag files onto it however, if you want to take advantage of the encryption and fingerprint/password unlocking you’ll need to install the OneModern software which is bundled on the drive when you plug it in.

It’s in the OneModern software that you can set up automatic backups (if you don’t want to drag and drop), configure a password and add fingerprints. It’s this software that then loads when you plug the drive in and prompts you to unlock it.

Using the OneModern S8

In using the OneModern S8 for a week I’ve noticed a couple of things.

Firstly, data transfers are super-quick which is brilliant for easily transferring large files and making backups on the fly and secondly, the fingerprint sensor works well every time giving me a secure way to store my data and an easy way to unlock it.

Overall, the OneModern S8 is about the most portable, secure hard drive you can get and I’d certainly recommend looking at getting one of these on Kickstarter…especially as the early bird prices make it cheaper than rival devices.

You can pre-order on Kickstarter here or click here to watch my video review.

Looking for a more well-known brand of secure portable hard drive? Check out the Samsung T7

Check out our other reviews.

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