Toshiba has given its Canvio portable hard drive range a mild update for 2025. As far as we can tell, the core specifications remain largely unchanged from the outgoing models, and instead it's the exterior design that's received a subtle rework.
The Canvio Flex is Toshiba's general purpose portable hard drive. With a matte silver finish, it's intended to be a go-anywhere back-up drive that easily connects to PCs and Macs, as well as iOS and Android phones and tablets. It's supplied with USB Type-A and Type-C cables for widespread compatibility with old and new devices.
However, the cables attach to the drive using an outdated USB 3.0 Micro-B connection - a connector that's been long superseded by Type-C. The drive's interface is advertised as USB 3.2 Gen 1, but this is simply a rebrand of the aging USB 3.0 standard, meaning that the drive is limited to 5 Gbps data transfer speed. Even so, given the Canvio Flex is a traditional mechanical hard drive at heart (as opposed to a much faster SSD) this relatively old and slow USB revision shouldn't actually bottleneck the hard drive within.
Capacities remain the same as for the previous Canvio Flex range, with 1TB, 2TB and 4TB options available. As yet no pricing details have been announced, but if the new line-up costs roughly the same as the outgoing models, expect to pay around $65 for the 1TB capacity, rising to approximately $110 for the 4TB drive.
For those who want a portable hard drive primarily for expanding game console storage, there's the Canvio Gaming edition drive. This features a dark grey metallic color with a blue status LED, plus an ‘always on’ mode for quicker resume/response times during gaming. It's supplied only with a USB Type-A cable (no Type-C cable is included), but capacities (and we'd assume transfer speeds) match those of the Canvio Flex.
Expect the new Canvio Flex and Canvio Gaming portable hard drives to be available later in Q1 2025.
