The Ultra Touch measures 4.5 x 3.1 x 0.5in (115 x 78 x 12mm) and weighs 0.3 pounds (151 grams), so you can easily slip it into a jacket pocket or a bag when you’re traveling. It has a stylish design that makes it a good companion for your MacBook, and also offers encryption to provide extra security for your important files and data. The Seagate Ultra Touch is available with either 1TB or 2TB storage. There are faster hard drives available, but that’s still a respectable speed for a compact hard drive such as this, and the Mobile Drive 2022 remains a good, affordable backup drive for MacBook owners – and even owners of desktop Macs who may need the larger 4TB or 5TB models. The drive has a USB-C interface, with a USB-C cable included in the box, and recorded write and read speeds of 126MB/s and 130MB/s respectively when running the BlackMagic Disk Speed Test.

You can use them for your Time Machine backups, but LaCie’s ToolKit app – for macOS 10.14 or later – also allows you to create a Mirror folder that is automatically updated whenever you make any changes to the files or data within that folder. They’re all constructed out of recycled aluminum, and sturdy enough to cope with life on the road. The 4TB and 5TB models are a little thicker – at 20.4mm – and weigh 300g, but that’s still a good size for portable hard drives that provide such high capacity. The 1TB and 2TB models measure just 10.4mm thick, 85mm wide, and 118mm long, and weigh 200g, so they’re easy to pick up and carry around with your laptop. Prices start at a competitive £79.99 for a drive with 1TB storage, but there are also models with 2TB, 4TB, and 5TB available too.

The LaCie logo is right in the center, rather than off on one side as was previously the case.

In contrast, the new 2022 Mobile Drive adopts Apple’s current design fetish, with a slimline, rectangular design that has smooth rounded corners. The previous version is still available from a few online stores, but you can recognize it by its sharp, angular design. LaCie’s Mobile Drive was already on our list of the best hard drives for Mac users, and it has just recently released a new version of the drive for 2022.

Mac air hard drive