The WD My Passport Ultra Limited Edition Dragon ($89.99 for 2TB) is one of a growing number of thematically decorated hard drives. Typically, they are nicely decorated but have otherwise-pedestrian feature sets, with outdated connectivity and a lack of software. The Dragon Edition of the My Passport Ultra changes this trend; not only does this Editors' Choice award winner have a gorgeous graphic on the front, it has all the features you might want in a portable hard drive, and it is priced the same as the standard My Passport Ultra. Our only (minor) regret is that it is limited to a 2TB capacity.

Design: The Rise of the Decorative Hard Drive

Storage drives are not generally sexy or buzzworthy as far as tech products go, although manufacturers often make at least token efforts to dress up their external drives to give them a persona beyond the utilitarian. Gaming SSDs and hard drives (the latter chiefly used for game storage these days) take this further than most, frequently featuring RGB lighting and other flourishes. A few general-purpose spinning hard drives, such as the LaCie Mobile Drive (2022), place an emphasis on style, and WD's My Passport and My Passport Ultra products are partially clad in a pleasing corrugated, ridged texture, which also makes them easy to grip. Still, even simple flourishes like multiple color options were once rare.

This all changed a few years ago, when Seagate launched hard drives depicting Lucasfilm and Marvel characters and themes. In late 2022, we reviewed two Mandalorian-themed portable hard drives, the Seagate FireCuda Beskar Ingot External Hard Drive and Seagate Grogu Special Edition FireCuda External Hard Drive, followed by the Seagate Spider-Man Special Edition FireCuda External Hard Drive. Since then, additional decorative drives have appeared, many but not all of them branded tie-ins to entertainment or popular culture.

These drives appeal to the fans of the series and movies, but as storage devices, the ones we tested were nothing special. Although they were decent performers, they were limited to USB-A connectivity (with a native USB mini-B port) and came with no software. In addition, they were warrantied for a single year, and were priced considerably more than typical 2TB portable hard drives. Because of these drawbacks, and the sameness of these drives other than their decor, we decided not to review any more of their ilk, like a Black Panther Shuri-themed hard drive or a cornucopia of additional Star Wars-themed models.

We decided to make an exception a few months ago, when I came across a product page for the Dragon drive and fell in love with its depiction of a golden Asian dragon on a red background. That beauty adorns a much more capable drive than the Seagate models mentioned above. It has a USB-C port and connectivity, backup software and password protection, a three-year warranty, and the same price as the non-dragon version of the 2TB My Passport Ultra. So my editors and I decided it's worth a closer look.

Specs and Features: A Passport Inside a Dragon

Beneath its dragon decor, the Limited Edition Dragon has WD's time-honored My Passport Ultra DNA. The dragon-adorned top is affixed to a matte-black base. The enclosure, which measures 0.6 by 3.2 by 4.3 inches and weighs 0.35 pound, combines metal and plastic and feels like a sturdy, well-built product. The biggest surfaces of the drive enclosure have two textures, with a smooth half and a rippled half bisected by a diagonal center line, while a WD logo occupies the upper-left corner of the top.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

On one of the short ends of the case is a USB-C port. The My Passport Ultra includes a foot-long USB-C-to-USB-C cable and a USB-C-to-USB-A adapter. A status light to the left of the port glows when the drive is connected.

The Limited Edition Dragon includes backup software plus AES 256-bit hardware encryption and password protection. Assuming it's implemented properly, AES-256 is currently considered essentially unbreakable. To take advantage of the encryption, you simply install and launch the WD Security app that comes on the drive, enter a password, and optionally add a password hint. By default, whenever you connect the drive to a computer or reboot, you'll be prompted for the password before you can access your data.

WD backs the drive with a three-year warranty, which is standard for portable hard drives from major manufacturers.

The Limited Edition Dragon comes in just a 2TB capacity. Its cost of 4.5 cents per gigabyte is competitive with other 2TB platter-based drives, and the same as other My Passport Ultra hard drives.

Testing the WD My Passport Ultra Limited Edition Dragon: Solid Speeds

As the Limited Edition Dragon comes preformatted in exFAT for both Windows and Mac compatibility, we first ran our two Mac-based tests, Blackmagic and our folder transfer test, from an Apple MacBook Pro using the laptop's Thunderbolt port. Then we reformatted the drive to NTFS and ran the Crystal DiskMark, PCMark 10 Data Drive, and 3DMark Storage tests on our Windows testbed PC.

Overall, the drive's scores are in line with those of other spinning hard drives we have tested, including our comparison drives. (Remember that all these scores are poky compared with even the most basic external SSDs.) On Crystal DiskMark, its sequential read and write scores closely matched the WD My Passport, Works with USB-C (6TB) at the low end of the pack but still within the normal limits. It had the second-highest Blackmagic write throughput score, trailing just the WD My Passport Ultra (6TB) and well ahead of the rest of the pack. For PCMark 10, our most important test for external drives, the Limited Edition Dragon turned in a healthy score, off the top tier but well ahead of several laggards.

Verdict: This Dragon Is Golden

This hard drive is a lasting memento, a work of art, and a capable, full-featured storage device that sells for no more than a typical 2TB spinning hard drive. If you need larger storage capacity in a similar product, check out our two Editors' Choice-winning recommendations, the WD My Passport, Works with USB-C (6TB) and the WD My Passport Ultra (6TB). They come in the highest capacity available in a spinning portable-size hard drive, but of course they lack the exquisite dragon design.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

For its winning combination of looks, features, and solid performance, the My Passport Ultra Limited Edition Dragon is an easy pick as a PCMag Editors' Choice honoree, although it may not be around for much longer, as the Year of the Dragon ends in February 2025. We can only hope that WD comes up with something equally impressive for the Year of the Snake.