Pros
- Fast FireWire 800
- Cables included
- Timemachine ready
- Packed with tons of software
- Quality build
Cons
- eSATA requires an external power source
- eSATA performance disappointing
The Bottom Line
OWC’s Mercury Elite line is a fantastic place to find quality and speedy accessories for your Mac or Windows box and this portable hard drive is not exception. Even though the eSATA figures didn’t impress as they should have, truth is, this a portable device that will encounter more FireWire and USB than eSATA which nearly negates the offense. You will not be disappointed slipping this hard drive into your pocket.
Ratings
Recommended
Yes
Full Review
The OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro mini is fitted with a “Quad Interface” on the back that runs off the bus power of your FireWire or USB ports. OWC packed everything you’ll need in the box including high quality double shielded USB, FireWire 800, and eSATA cables. You will also find a DVD-ROM packed with Intech’s SpeedTools, Prosoft Engineering’s Data Backup for OS X, NovaStorBACKUP for Windows, Carbon Copy Cloner – a favorite of mine – and over 2 GB of other goodies. Inside the slick “aircraft grade machined aluminum enclosure” of the Mercury one would find a 2.5″ SATA hard drive (OWC also offers solid state drives), a translucent blue activity LED, an ultra-protective shock system, and ports for connecting the mini to your computer. You will not find a fan in the super quiet unit since OWC uses the enclosure to rid the unit of heat build up from either the 5400 or 7200 RPM drives. When attached to your computer, instead of the standard OS icon, you’ll see a picture replica of the OWC Mercury Elite AL Pro mini – that’s a mouthful – on your desktop. Ya, between the blue LED and that, it makes the Mercury just that much cooler. 
Ratings
Pros
- Charges batteries without need to be in notebook
- Small and compact
Cons
- Conditioner did not work during tests
- Very expensive
The Bottom Line
If you have extra batteries that need charging and you do not feel like waiting for the other battery in the notebook to be charged, then this may be an option for you. While NewerTech claims this device will recondition your battery, we were unable to do so with both an original Apple OEM battery or a brand new NuPower battery furnished by NewerTech. At a very step price of $150, we would only recommend this if you must quickly charge a bank of batteries.
Recommended
Maybe
Full Review
So, you’ve got a lot of batteries for your Apple notebook, huh? Oh, just two? Still, you’re looking to charge them both at the same time, right? Well you cannot do that on the notebook so you’ll probably be interested in looking at an external charging station such as NewerTech’s Intelligent Battery Charging Station. Now, is the $150 price tag for the intelligence part or for the convenience?
Ratings
Pros
- Perfect fit
- Easy-press battery-charge indicator button
- Ships fully charged
- Backed by strong warranty
Cons
- Minor gain of “up to 4.4%” battery capacity from original
The Bottom Line
If you need some NuPower to replace your tired and end-of-life MacBook Pro battery, then look no further than NewerTech’s replacement battery. Made solid and backed by NewerTech’s just as solid warranty, you will be hard pressed to find a replacement battery as good as this one for this price.
Recommended
Yes
Full Review
When I first purchased my MacBook Pro, the very first model to replace the aging PowerBook line, I was excited by the longer lasting battery that came with the updated Apple notebook. The original battery lasted pretty long after heavy use; however, nothing lasts for ever. So, it was time to replace Apple’s battery but most likely not with another Apple battery due to the high price tag. So should I get one of those cheap ones on eBay or go to Best Buy and try my luck there? Or, should I try one from one of the longest running Mac accessory company, NewerTech?
Ratings
Pros
- Plethora of supported interfaces
- Supports any modern hard drive
- Sleek looking
- Drop-in hard drive mount
Cons
- No tactical indicator of successful drive mount
- Price is a bit high
The Bottom Line
If you’re like many in todays modern techno-family, then you have extra hard drives lying around your home. Additionally, with the low cost of hard drives today, there really is no reason not to have extras for archive purposes. Either way, NewerTech’s Voyager Q allows you immediate access to your data without any work other than dropping the drive into the Qs bay and double clicking an icon on your Desktop. Instant access with more ways to connect to your hard drive than James Bond ever associated with his Q.
Recommended
Yes
Full Review
Hard drives liter my draws, cabinets, and desk. They’re every where. Some are archived drives and others retired ones. Needless to say, accessing anything on them has required some work in the past with either mounting them internally in a PC or in an enclosure. Yes, there’s also many variants of the SATA/IDE to USB set-ups that can be used, too, but man, what a mess of cables that is. Thankfully, the folks at NewerTech live like me and desire a nice easy, clean, way of data retrieval. The Voyager Q has landed on my desk and what a relief it has provided. Can it offer your scrap pile of metal, platters, and silicon reprieve as well?
Pros
- Super speedy
- Well engineered
- Quality build
Cons
- A bit pricey
- Front panel tricky to attach and close
The Bottom Line
With a slew of choices in the external hard drive market, it’s become difficult to pick the gems among the cubic zirconias. Thankfully companies such as OWC exist and continue to bring us diamonds like the Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 which glimmers with excellence. In our month of testing, we found ourselves in love with this unit and nearly crying when we had to return it. It’s that good.
Ratings
Recommended
Yes (Strongly)
Full ReviewOther World Computing is known for its Mac accessories and stellar support since 1988. OWC has brought that experience and ventured into the hard drive space with its external storage solutions for some years now. Its latest venture is the Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 which offers 2.0 TB to 8.0 TBs of space for your 1 and 0s to be placed on in an alpha bet soup of configuration choices. You can attach the Mercury drive to your Mac or PC by either FireWire 400, FireWire 800, USB 2.0, or through the speedy eSATA connection. I chose to use the FW800 port in the back of my Mac Pro Dual-Core Intel Xeon box and – wow – did I notice the speed immediately. For fun, I copied over a few ripped DVDs from my Mac’s internal drive to the Mercury Elite and watched it go. When copying 7.86 GBs of data, one becomes use to waiting but I have to say, I was quite impressed with the little amount time it took the OWC box to suck it all up. It only took it a total of three minutes. Impressive. Compare that to the LaCie HD Max which took it over ten minutes. Granted, the LaCie is on a USB 2.0 port but when one accounts the speed transfer ratios, the OWC Mercrury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 is still a clear winner. Ripping a 4.31 DVD only took an amazing two minutes! For a more in-depth speed test look, view the results below.