Seagate, a name that is trusted when it comes to hard drives, has unveiled yet another model for the masses which breaks new ground in terms of its thickness – or rather, in this case, just how thin it is. The Momentus Thin hard drive from Seagate holds the distinction of being the thinnest 2.5″ hard drive in the world which targets ultra-portable and entry-level laptops, high-end netbooks, backup devices and a whole host of other consumer electronics. Measuring a mere wafer-thin 7mm in height, it is 25% slimmer compared to the traditional 9.5mm 2.5″ laptop hard drives which are currently in the market. It might not sound like much, but lopping off 2.5mm in the industry does lend to a rather pronounced effect when you are trying to come up with chassis for a device which is smaller and lighter.


With its size, the Momentus Thin drive is able to give original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and system integrators a significantly lower cost-per-gigabyte storage compared to solid state and 1.8″ drives, which in turn drives a new breed of entry-level thin laptops. Being thinner also means the Momentus Thin will be able to put on a decent performance and is more power-efficient when compared to its rivals. You will be able to find the Momentus Thin coming in a couple of capacities – 250GB and 160GB, where both will also be accompanied by an 8MB cache, a Serial ATA 3Gb/second interface and a 5400RPM spin speed. Expect the Seagate Momentus Thin to ship to Seagate’s OEM and integrator partners sometime next month.

Among the other features found are self-encryption, FIPS 140-2 certification and free-fall sensors, making sure that your data within will remain safe and sound even if you happen to experience a moment of clumsiness, dropping your precious device to the floor by accident. No idea on pricing, but we should be able to see the first few Momentus Thin hard drive based devices roll out sometime after January next year.