Pros: Solid, un-Bendable enclosure, seems very rugged.

Solid 140Mb/s on large files, Solid 80MbPS on small files, close to 20Mb/s on tiny files. Pretty solid numbers for a drive.

Comes with an adapter to USB -A Doesn't change the speed of the drive. But if you do not have USB 3.1 - 3.0 you will be fine, USB 2.0 or earlier will leave you in tears on data transfers as it depends on your hardware.

Comes WD software for the N00Bs that want everything to be automated and do what it does instead of what they specifically want.

Cons: Cable was kinda long for laptop users, and kinda short for PC users............ so basically perfect, I just wanted to type something here.

Overall Review: So far my use of the drive has been a good experience. after a full blown 3.56TB upload to the drive it did not get hot, slow down, or even die.

I have tested this drive to the max with tiny, medium, and large files and it never gets warm. Heck I even dropped it once to see if it would slow down ....... it did not.

So far it is a Very solid platform and I hope WD expands on this platform

Pros: - I'll lead with my personal top pro here. This drive is solid. I have 2 other portable ones; both are plastic. This drive carries some bulk and is definitely better suited for travel/getting banged around than the other two. Love it.
- Optional adapter lets you use this drive over your traditional USB connection or USB-C. Note, this doesn't really net you any speed, it just gives you flexibility.
- Read/Write speeds match that of your standard 7200rpm platter drive.
- The silver/black design of the drive definitely looks higher end than that of the two drives I mentioned earlier that I use.
- 4TB of storage... Big drive, plenty of space.
- 3 Year Warranty. Good to note because you will most likely be transporting this drive so it's nice to know you're covered past the industry standard 1 year.

Cons: - There is only one thing I can think of and I did deduct an egg for this. I was excited when I got this drive, plugged it right in, and I hear a very faint clicking noise. I'm thinking to myself, "wow... did I just get a DOA?"
Windows did not pick up the drive.

So, first thing I did was unplug it. Wait for it to spin down. Plugged it back in and everything was fine. Actually, it's been perfectly fine now over 2 weeks. No clicking since that one incident.

Overall Review: I'm really hoping that the clicking literally was just some one off because I really like this drive. I do frequently move around large amounts of data between home and work and my old 2TB drive was really pushing the limits. With the WD 4TB Passport, I have room to spare in a drive I'm actually comfortable bringing around.

Pros: Installation:
Installation was relatively easy. Removed from box, removed from blister pack, attach USB-C cable to drive and attach other end to computer. It also includes a USB-A (standard rectangle) to USB-C (oval shape) adapter, if your computer does not have a USB-C port. Cable is a heavy duty, but a very short 12-16" long. User guide is on Western Digital's website.

With Windows 8.1 already running, the drive was not automatically recognized. To get it recognized, I opened Windows Explorer -> right-click on "This PC" (My Computer in earlier versions of Windows), selected Storage -> Disk Management. From here, I found the disk with the approximate size (1862.99 GB for 2TB drive) and assigned it a drive letter. The drive is pre-formatted to NTFS. Typical install process for any new, mass storage drive, I just thought it would be easier with an external one.

Software:
Already on the drive is a program to install Western Digital's "Discovery" for Windows or Mac.

Some of the features of this program include:
*It allows connected WD devices like WD My Passport and other supported drives to be managed under one application (My Cloud Home)
*It simplifies complex tasks like securing the drive with a password or managing drive settings
*It allows for device registration in order to receive important software updates and notifications
*It displays device status such as capacity, free space available, drive security and so on

This program has another potentially cool feature - it also allows you to import files from your other cloud accounts including Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Facebook, Instagram accounts, etc.

My results from trying to import from a few services:
* Google Drive - automatically downloads all of your Google Drive account and lets you set the destination, but doesn't let you choose the source folders/files. You also can't upload.
* Dropbox - automatically downloads all of your DropBox account and lets you set the destination, but doesn't let you choose the source folders/files. You also can't upload.
* Facebook - did not work, because Discovery tries to use a non-https URL.

There is a big icon for "My Cloud Home," but that is a separate external backup system sold by WD and not relevant to this product.

There are other optional Apps you can install from the Discovery software, however only three are free "WD Drive Utilities", "WD Security", "WD Backup." The paid apps say "Learn More."

The password protection is under the security app and gives you 256-bit encryption to make this drive unbreakable - don't lose the password!

Physical:
Blue/black case is a nice, anodized dark blue with some texturing. Seems sturdy enough to protect the contents.

Speed:
I compared the performance of this drive to my Seagate BarraCuda ST4000DM005 4TB. The results using CrystalDiskMark 2.2, HDTune 2.5.5 and copying internal files:

Seagate BarraCuda ST4000DM005 4TB 64MB Cache, 5900RPM
***CrystalDiskMark***
Seq: Read 170.5 MB/s / Write 159.6 MB/s
4K: Read 0.603 MB/s / Write 1.798 MB/s
***HDTune***
Maximum Transfer Rate = 197.4 MB/sec
Average Transfer Rate = 182.5 MB/sec
Minimum Transfer Rate = 139.6 MB/sec
Access time = 11.7 ms
Burst Rate = 197.4 MB/sec
1GB large file copy = 10.5 s
1GB small files copied (14,700 files) = 32 s

Western Digital My Passport Ultra 2TB
***CrystalDiskMark***
Seq: Read 346.4 MB/s / Write 129.6 MB/s
4K: Read 1.038 MB/s / Write 6.320 MB/s
***HDTune***
Maximum Transfer Rate = 249.3 MB/sec
Average Transfer Rate = 242.8 MB/sec
Minimum Transfer Rate = 129.6 MB/sec
Access time = 0.5 ms
Burst Rate = 165.9 MB/sec
1GB large file copy = 9s
1GB small files copied (14,700 files) = 32s

Wow! This drive cooks on sequential read rate (large file transfers), although write speed is a little slower than the 3.5" drive. On the other hand, write speed for 4K (small file transfers), demolishes the other drive. However, in real world testing, it took the same amount of time to transfer small files as the Seagate BarraCuda. Without knowing the true specs, the 0.5 ms access time makes me believe this is a hybrid SSD-mechanical drive. Whatever - it works.

Warranty:
The warranty is three years, which is solid compared to competitors.

Noise:
Quiet - I could not hear the drive over my low speed case fans.

Cons: * Lack of import settings with software program
* No built-in ability to upload to cloud servers
* Cost premium for the lower capacity models

Overall Review: Overall, this is a fast, secure, light and attractive looking drive with a good warranty. While the software could use some work, if you are looking for portable storage, this is a great choice.

Pros: SUMMARY
One of the most cost-efficient per Mb, portable, high-capacity, USB-C powered mechanical drives from the market leader.

THE LINE-UP
WD has a vast lineup of external hard drives which can sometimes be confusing. I have purchased many of these and still have to go over the various options each time. The “My Passport” series were originally designed to be a certain size (the size of a passport) and have gone through multiple generations. They currently come as “My Passport”, “My Passport for Mac”, “Ultra”, “Ultra for Mac”, “Wireless”, “Wireless SSD”, “SSD”, “Wireless Pro”, and “X”. WD also has a similar, small form factor “Elements” series.

The main differentiating feature of the “My Passport Ultra” over the “My Passport” is the USB-C interface with an included cable that can also be set up to be backward compatible to USB-A plugs. The “Ultra” series case has nice heat dissipating shiny metal on top and black plastic on the bottom with tiny rubber feet and an activity LED. I think it looks better than the previous generation metal design. WD tried to be green - using some recycled materials for the case.

Everything called “My Passport” has:
Option of hardware AES encryption.
3 year warranty
Up to 4 TB of storage (though WD doesn’t sell any 2.5 inch 4 TB laptop drives)
WD Discovery and WD Backup software

SIZE
Pretty amazing how something this small can hold 4TB (81.6 x 110 x 20.96 mm). I voided the warranty by taking it apart. One way the case is so small in length is that the USB-C controller is built into the drive. The shock absorption design inside the case is good.The drive inside looks like it likely uses 4 platters and is branded a blue WD drive. Unknown if they had to go SMR or if they still use PMR technology to get this density. The USB-C to USB-C cable has a removable adapter for one end so you can use it for older USB ports. The cable length with adapter is about 20 inches.

SOFTWARE
I have the “My Passport Ultra”. The root of my drive came with both an “Install Discovery for Windows.exe” and an “Install Discovery for Mac.dmg”. The windows software is designed to easily install and automatically can consolidate data from both online (like Facebook, Google Drive & Dropbox) and local data with the possibility of using AES-256 Encryption. The Encryption software can even add a “return-if-found” message should your drive become lost when travelling.
Mine was formatted as NTFS. Natively, this will mount on a Mac as read-only. WD provides a free downloadable version of the Paragon driver that will also let you write to NTFS from macOS - (worth about $20 if you had to buy it yourself). Otherwise, if you wanted to use this on both mac and Win 7+ then you could reformat as exFAT. If you want Mac only then you could re-format as HFS.
If you are a mac-only person - buy the “My Passport Ultra for Mac” which has mac software and comes in mac format.

PERFORMANCE
I don’t believe the drive performance is much of an issue with these mechanical external portables and WD doesn’t even publish specs for them. My testing showed good performance - about 175/165 MB/s R/W attached to a Lenovo P71 laptop with SSD internal drives. Runs cool and quiet.

Cons: Life expectancy of mechanical drives used in an active/portable fashion is always an unknown so don’t let what’s on this drive be your only copy and properly eject NTFS drives from you system when unplugging. On the other hand, a 3 year warranty on a portable drive is really good.

If you haul it around alot - may want to buy a padded case/pouch (WD makes one for this product line).

The AES encryption should be considered consumer-level safety. There have been a couple papers and at least one security firm offering data recovery on these devices if you were to forget the password.

Overall Review: WD is a good company that is investing in diversification, broad product lines, and research (bought Sandisk, making Helium sealed 14 TB drives, etc.)

Over the years I have changed my thinking on how to use these external drives. With 4 TB available in something the size of a cell phone at this low price per MB, there are a lot of different use cases.

I think the most common use is still single-user backup of data. Most folks don’t have access to redundant servers and enormous amounts of cloud storage. With a 4 TB drive, the average user could back up multiple machines and even some small file servers if they have usb ports. This can be done in rotation for redundancy. There is no cheaper storage than external mechanical hard drive storage when factoring in labor. The bundled WD software is a decent option for the typical consumer. Remember, one RAID server does not qualify as backup and a couple external drives in rotation are a lot cheaper than building a second RAID server for backup. In a poll June, 2018 - 24% of people still never back up their computers. 26% only do it once per year.

The physical portability of moving 4 TB of data without depending on the network or the internet makes these ideal for the photo/video shoot, taking a library of videos around with you, storing virtual machine images, taking projects home from work, or plugging into an entertainment system, - all at speeds of more than 150 MB/sec.