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The WD My Passport Ultra Limited Edition Dragon ($89.99 for 2TB) is one of a growing number of themed hard drives. Typically, they are nicely decorated but have different features for pedestrians, with outdated connectivity and a lack of software. The Dragon Edition of the My Passport Ultra changes this trend; This Editors’ Choice award winner not only has a beautiful graphic on the front, it also has all the features you could want in a portable hard drive, and it’s the same price as the standard My Passport Ultra. Our only (minor) regret is that it is limited to a capacity of 2TB.
Design: The rise of the decorative hard drive
Storage drives generally aren’t sexy or buzzworthy when it comes to tech products, although manufacturers often make at least token efforts to dress up their external drives to give them a personality beyond the utilitarian. Gaming SSDs and hard drives (the latter are mainly used for game storage these days) take this further than most, often with RGB lighting and other features. A few general-purpose spinning hard drives, like the LaCie Mobile Drive (2022), put an emphasis on style, and WD’s My Passport and My Passport Ultra products are partially coated with a pleasing ruffled, ribbed texture, making them are also easy to use. grab hold. Yet even simple embellishments such as multiple color options were once rare.
This all changed a few years ago, when Seagate launched hard drives with images of Lucasfilm and Marvel characters and themes. In late 2022, we reviewed two Mandalorian-themed portable hard drives, the Seagate FireCuda Beskar Ingot external hard drive and the Seagate Grogu Special Edition FireCuda external hard drive, followed by the Seagate Spider-Man Special Edition FireCuda external hard drive. Since then, further decorative drives have appeared, many, but not all, related to entertainment or popular culture.
These drives appeal to fans of the series and movies, but as storage devices the drives we tested were nothing special. While they offered decent performance, they were limited to USB-A connectivity (with a native USB mini-B port) and came without software. Additionally, they had a one-year warranty and were priced significantly higher than typical 2TB portable hard drives. Due to these drawbacks and the similarity of these drives aside from their design, we have decided to no longer review similar drives, such as a Black Panther Shuri-themed hard drive or a plethora of additional Star Wars-themed models.
We decided to make an exception a few months ago, when I came across a product page for the Dragon drive and fell in love with the image of a gold Asian dragon on a red background. That beauty is accompanied by a much more capable handling than the Seagate models mentioned above. It has a USB-C port and connectivity, backup software and password protection, a three-year warranty, and the same price as the non-dragon version of the 2TB My Passport Ultra. So my editors and I decided it was worth taking a closer look.
Specifications and features: A passport in a dragon
Underneath the dragon decor, the Limited Edition Dragon has WD’s time-honored My Passport Ultra DNA. The dragon-decorated top is mounted on a matte black base. The case, which measures 0.6 by 3.2 by 4.3 inches and weighs 0.35 pounds, combines metal and plastic and feels like a sturdy, well-built product. The largest surfaces of the drive case have two textures, with a smooth half and a corrugated half, bisected by a diagonal center line, while a WD logo occupies the upper left corner of the top.
There is a USB-C port at one of the short ends of the case. The My Passport Ultra comes with a foot-long USB-C to USB-C cable and a USB-C to USB-A adapter. A status light to the left of the port glows when the drive is connected.
The Limited Edition Dragon includes backup software plus AES 256-bit hardware encryption and password protection. Assuming it is implemented correctly, AES-256 is currently considered essentially unbreakable. To take advantage of the encryption, simply install and launch the WD Security app that comes on the drive, enter a password, and optionally add a password hint. By default, when you connect the drive to a computer or restart it, you will be asked for the password before you can access your data.
WD gives the drive a three-year warranty, which is standard for portable hard drives from major manufacturers.
The Limited Edition Dragon has a capacity of only 2 TB. The cost of 4.5 cents per gigabyte is competitive with other 2TB drives, and the same as other My Passport Ultra hard drives.
Testing the WD My Passport Ultra Limited Edition Dragon: Solid speeds
Because the Limited Edition Dragon comes pre-formatted in exFAT for both Windows and Mac compatibility, we first ran our two Mac-based tests, Blackmagic and our folder transfer test, from an Apple MacBook Pro using the laptop’s Thunderbolt port . We then reformatted the drive to NTFS and ran the Crystal DiskMark, PCMark 10 Data Drive, and 3DMark Storage tests on our Windows testbed PC.
Overall, the drive’s scores are in line with other spinning hard drives we’ve tested, including our comparison drives. (Note that all of these scores are paltry compared to even the most basic external SSDs.) On Crystal DiskMark, the sequential read and write scores closely matched the WD My Passport, works with USB-C (6TB) on the bottom of the package but still within normal limits. It had the second-highest Blackmagic write throughput score, behind only the WD My Passport Ultra (6TB) and well ahead of the rest of the pack. For PCMark 10, our main test for external drives, the Limited Edition Dragon earned a healthy score, outside the top tier but well ahead of some laggards.
Verdict: This dragon is golden in color
This hard drive is a lasting keepsake, a work of art, and a capable, fully featured storage device that sells for no more than a typical 2TB spinning hard drive. If you need more storage capacity in a comparable product, check out our two Editors’ Choice winning recommendations, the WD My Passport, works with USB-C (6TB) and the WD My Passport Ultra (6TB). They have the highest capacity available on a spinning portable hard drive, but of course they lack the exquisite dragon design.
Because of its winning combination of looks, features, and solid performance, the My Passport Ultra Limited Edition Dragon is an easy choice as a PCMag Editors’ Choice honoree, although it may not be around much longer as the Year of the Dragon ends February 2025. We can Let’s just hope that WD comes up with something equally impressive for the Year of the Snake.
