Samsung today announced its ne

The Samsung S Series family consists of a 2.5-inch drive S2 Portable and a 1.8-inch HDD S1 Mini. The new external drives are designed in a sleek casing with a leather back-cover.

By incorporating a USB controller within the conventional hard drive, the Samsung?s S Series has a smaller case footprint vs. competing external hard drives. The USB on-board technology also reduces the weight and the power consumption of the drives. In addition, a power savings intelligence program monitors the drive?s use and places the drive into a low power "sleep mode" whenever the drive has not been used for 10 minutes.

A Samsung Auto backup function allows the user to program the default backup in real time or as scheduled. A SecretZone protects files and data in the form of software-based AES-128bit or AES-256bit encryption. The external drive owner?s data is also locked with a password-protecting SafetyKey which ensures data security. A capacity gauge enables users to see at a glance how much space is available, used, or designated as backup storage.

Samsung?s external hard drive S Series is available in 2.5- and 1.8-inch form factor devices. The 2.5-inch S2 Portable, weighing 154g, is available in 160-, 250-, 320-, 500-GB capacities. The credit card-sized 1.8-inch S1 Mini comes in 80-, 120-, 160-GB capacities and weighs just 91g.

The S Series will be available in Q4 in the U.S. The new drives are designed in four colors: black, white, red, and brown.