Lenovo F309 1TB external drive review
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Appearance - 8/10
8/10
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Features - 8/10
8/10
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Materials - 7/10
7/10
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Performance - 8/10
8/10
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Portability - 8/10
8/10
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Value - 9/10
9/10
Summary
As long as the Lenovo F309 is on sale, this is the best external drive to get!
Overall
8/10Pros
+ Good design
+ Very good performance
+ Blue and red LED notification
+ Thick USB cable
+ Very affordable price (due the sales promotion from Lazada)
Cons
Last week one of my friends asked me to buy an external drive for him, he gave me only two criteria to meet: a fairly affordable price tag and a terabyte of storage. So I got him a Lenovo F309 1TB external drive but before I handed the drive over to him I took the opportunity to do a quick review of it. So let’s get started.
Appearance
Nothing much to see on the packaging except the models numbers, storage capacity and some information on the back. Open the packaging and we have the Lenovo F309 1TB external drive itself, a USB 3.0 cable, a user guide and a warranty sheet. Good job Lenovo for designing a slim and solid-feeling case.
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Performance
External drive reviews are quite simple and straightforward; I ran the test on both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports just to give you an idea of what to expect if your laptop or desktop doesn’t come with USB 3.0 port. I am using CrystalDiskMark X64 as my benchmark, note that the sequential (seq) result is pretty much the same as real life transfer test. The drive is formatted with the NTFS file system so only 931GB is usable.
First, let’s we talk about the performance over USB 2.0, the speed is actually pretty good, 44MBs read and 45MBs write. If you’re copying a 1GB file it will take about 23 second to finish, how about the USB 3.0?
The speed is doubled when I plugged the Lenovo F309 into a USB 3.0 port, 110MBs read and 114MBs write. Theoretically, it will take about 9 second to copy a 1GB file.
LED notification
During the test I noticed that the Lenovo F309 have two different LED colours which is Red and Blue. At first I thought the blue is on idle mode while the red LED on load but I was totally wrong. Actually, if you plug the drive into a USB 2.0 port, the blue LED will light up and the red LED indicates that the drive is connected to a USB 3.0 port.
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The LED will turn off after you successfully eject the drive from Windows OS. It acts as an indicator whether it is safe to unplug the drive.
Conclusion
When I am satisfied with a product, either with the design or performance, it is a lot easier to sum up. Lenovo F309 has a good looking design, acceptable performance and also nifty LED notification lights, but the drive is only worthy of Pokde.net’s Bronze award. However, due to the fact that you can get it for quite cheap on Lazada, I award the Lenovo F309 a Silver award, due to the really affordable price tag.
Hi
I have recently purchased this product but it is not working on my samsung tv. When i called lenovo someone advised that the F309 is not compatible with tv’s. Please advise if you have tried it on your tv?
Hi, most TVs do not provide enough power for external hard drives. I haven’t tried the Lenovo F309 but I have tried several other external drives which didn’t work either.
work great with LG & Panasonic TV
My advise to anyone who’s thinking of buying this would be: DONT GO FOR IT
Its not working at all and no support is being provided by Lenovo. Also this product is NOT registered on Lenovo India’s website hence no warranty is entertained within India.
Hi Vivek, we got this external drive from Lazada Malaysia, and it is covered by local supplier warranty.
Been using this for 6 months, perfect used and speed over USB 3.0 is impeccable.
Used for Macbook Time Machine Backup,Windows File History and a bunch of family photos and videos :)
A recommendation for all
PS: Bought it over a store at MARA Digital at MYR 230
This is quite a good value for money drive, and can even be gotten for cheaper on Lazada.
IS THIS WORK WELL WITH A OLD LAPTOP WITH USB 2.0 ?
Hi, it will work over a USB 2.0 connection.
Hi,
Is this HDD required 5.5W port? My PC having only 500mA port supporting capacity. When I connect it to my PC, the HDD is not detecting. Provide me any solution.
Hi, try plugging in the HDD to the rear USB ports?
Not working.
May i know what is not working?
My PC having only 500mA port supporting capacity. When I connect it to my PC, the HDD is not detecting even if I connected HDD to the rare USB port.
I see. Your external hard drive is not having enough power.
Any issue regarding Power supply section ? should I check SMPS or replace it with higher rating ?
Do this model hv shock prove spec?
Hi Norah, no this model isn’t designed for shock resistance. If you are looking for shock resistance, have a look at Transcend’s StoreJet line up. We have reviewed the StoreJet 25H3 3TB here: https://pokde.net/tech/transcend-storejet-25h3-3tb-external-drive-review/
Salam Firdaus, model ni compatible dengan Macbook Air tak?
Wsalam Lin, Yes, model ini patut compatible dengan Macbook Air..Tapi drive kena format ke exFAT atau FAT32..
Why Lenovo F309 1TB external drive, when i transfer large file it will error and disconnection. If i transfer small file is OK.
Please advise…
Hi Ravi, are you using your drive over a USB 3.0 or USB 2.0 connection? It could be that your USB 2.0 ports are underpowered for the drive
What type of disk is inside these lenovo external uhd because i have one and i want to open it and use it inside my macbook whose disk got fried, i wanna know if it is compatible or not.
I’m very sorry, I not sure which hard drive used in this Lenovo F309.
Are you sure about the red colour led
My Disk does not have it even if I plug it to USB 3.0
Yes I am pretty sure the LED turn to RED when plug into USB 3.0 port.
it is not recognizing usb 3.0 port in my laptop. Led notification light always remains blue any solution for that ?
May I know your laptop brand and model?
I still didn´t get it…will it work with 2.0 USB ports? …Sorry, I´m not english fluent, yet
Thanks
Hi Baster,
Yes, this will definitely work with USB 2.0. Our reviewer has tested this both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports. Hope that answer satisfies you :)
Oh, thanks a lot Aiman …
Hi, I recently got one of this but the LED light is always blue despite plugging in to a USB 3 port. Do you know why or how I can get it to be recognised as a USB 3.0 device?
I am using a MacBook Pro (mid 2012) OS Sierra 10.12.3
Thanks in advance!
it should not have a problem when plug into USB 3.0 port, have you try run a test with the drive? for mac you can use Blackmagic Disk Speed Test on the Mac App Store.
You mean when you plugged into a USB2.0 port the indicator light will be red. Blue means you have plugged into a USB3.0 port
Hmm, maybe Lenovo swapped the indications? We no longer have the external drive to double confirm though…