When a new or updated technology is launched it doesn’t take long for manufacturers to take advantage and get new products available to buy. That’s the case with USB 3.0 and Freecom look to be first out the gate with an external hard drive taking advantage of the speedier connection.

The new drive carries the name Freecom Hard Drive XS 3.0 and will allow transfer speeds of up to 130MB/s, which is more than double the speed of USB 2.0 that maxed out at roughly 60MB/s (but typically a lot less in real-world use). As the name suggests this drive is based on the XS range, which Freecom launched back in May and proclaimed as the smallest 3.5″ external hard drive available. This updated drive sticks to the same dimensions so not only is it the smallest, but currently the fastest USB external drive there is.

Axel Lucassen, managing director of Freecom said:

The rapid transfer speeds of USB 3.0 are going to make sharing information easier than ever before, and with the rise of interactive web applications and new media showing no signs of slowing, it’s arrived just in time.

USB 3.0 is backwards compatible with existing USB conenctions so you can take advantage of this drive even without a USB 3.0 connection. The XS 3.0 will be available in Europe first from next month in 1, 1.5, and 2TB models. Prices start at$175.

Matthew’s Opinion

I doubt Freecom will be the only vendor switching to USB 3.0 for very long. The backwards compatibility makes the switch a no-brainer for manufacturers and it will soon be the case that if your hard drives and USB sticks don’t have 3.0 written on them they just won’t sell. For the consumer the advantages are clear – your external storage is about to get a lot faster making backups and file transfers in general happen much quicker.

There is a price premium on these Freecom drives, for example, the equivalent USB 2.0 1TB drive is $75 cheaper at $99. But that premium will soon start to disappear as other vendors bring out competing products. This time next year I expect that pricing will have lowered to USB 2.0 drive levels if not sooner than that.

If you are considering a new external drive purchase then I’d suggest waiting if you can. USB 3.0 drives will start to flood the market and should be commonplace in 2010 and the extra speed on offer is worth the wait.