Ever since I had my first encounter with SuperSpeed USB I knew this was the future of portable storage devices since it manages to bring an impressive increase in transfer speeds while also retaining compatibility with the previous devices, and HP seems to have realized the same exact thing since it has released a new range of USB 3.0 portable hard drives.

Coming in 500GB, 750GB and 1TB capacities these new hard drives don't differ to much for the other SuperSpeed USB 3.0 offerings available out there so don't expect anything revolutionary from Hewlett Packard since the company markets these as a way of adding extra storage to your computer.

Although it won't be as fast as the Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 flash drive we just reviewed, the USB 3.0 interface will most certainly allow them to reach an transfer speeds above anything the, now outdated, USB 2.0 can muster.

Coming in at 0.7 x 3.1 x 4.4 inches and weighting in around 190 grams HP's new drives are fairly compact and, since the drives pull all their power from the USB plug, no separate power supply is needed making them pretty easy to carry around with you.

Al the drives are backwards compatible with USB 2.0 as well as a wide range of operating systems and are available right now for pre-order, the 500GB version coming in at $79 while the 750GB and 1TB drives will set you back $99 and $129, respectively.