Buffalo MiniStation Lite USB 3.0 review

The MiniStation Lite is Buffalo’s first USB3 portable hard disk. Although the glossy black and matte grey case is made of plastic instead of metal, like some other portable external hard drives we’ve seen, it still feels reassuringly rigid and robust.

The MiniStation was fast at transferring small files, writing them at 34MB/s and reading them at just under 61MB/s. Although it was also fast at transferring large files, writing them at 59MB/s and reading them at 64MB/s, we’ve seen other USB3 disks that are even faster. Buffalo claims its bundled TurboCopy program can boost file copy performance, but there was no difference in our tests.

Other bundled software includes a basic backup program that supports both scheduled and incremental backups, though wizard-style interface won’t suit everyone. Curiously, a RAM disk utility is also included, but this will be of limited interest to most people.

The MiniStation Lite is a good USB3 portable disk with a very reasonable price per gigabyte of 16p. Unless you can find a cheaper drive, it’s a good buy.