SEOUL, Korea - August 19, 2010 - Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in digital consumer electronics and information technology, announced today its new 2.5-inch external hard disk drive (HDD), the S2 Portable 3.0. The new high performance external HDD features an on-board SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface and a 7200RPM spindle speed, delivering faster performance over preceding versions.

"As digital content continues to evolve from standard definition to HD and now 3D content, we expect the demand for high performance external HDDs to increase, especially among IT enthusiasts," said Ho-Seong Lee, vice president of storage marketing of the Semiconductor Business at Samsung Electronics.  "The S2 Portable 3.0 delivers the benefits of top performance and quality, and as a result, lowers the power usage of the external hard drive also."

The SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface offers a maximum transfer rate of 5 gigabits per second (Gbps) compared to the 480 megabits per second (Mbps) of USB 2.0. In addition, the 7200RPM rotation speed delivers high performance, while the low vibration Dynamic Balancing^TM technology and the low noise technologies SilentSeek^TM and NoiseGuard^TM provide added convenience.

In addition, the on-board USB technology reduces the size of the hard disk casing and delivers reduced power consumption. The new external hard drive also features a preloaded software suite including Samsung Auto Backup, SecretZone^TM and SafetyKey^TM for data encryption and password protection.

The S2 Portable 3.0 is available in 320GB and 640GB capacities with shipments commencing this month to countries in the European Union.