Compact and stylish is how one would describe the latest 1.8-inch external hard drives from Toshiba, which were seen during a sneak preview at the recently concluded CES 2008. As far as looks are concerned, the drives have a sleek black finish with a splash of color in Carbon Grey, Hot Rod Red and Gecko Green. This visually appealing design places them in a different league than the normally rugged-looking external drives. The 1.8-inch HDDs will be available in capacities of 60GB, 80GB and 120GB, and will also include backup and encryption software. However, if you are looking for higher capacity, there is the new 320GB, 2.5-inch external HDD available right away for $199.99.

No other information has been released about the 1.8-inch drives just yet, so the pricing is anybody’s guess - a reasonable upper limit would perhaps be around $100 for the 120GB version. Look forward to seeing these beauties around by spring 2008.

Via Mobile Magazine.