The top of the drive is blue metal (I think aluminum) and the bottom is black plastic. As far as transfer speed, it gets me about 150 mb/s. Is it worth the extra $$$$ compared to the Passport or Elements? Eh. Maybe.
This 5TB My Passport Ultra drive by WD has very consistent quality with each one. It lasts for years with frequent intensive reading and writing. There have been no failures for about three years so far.
So far so good. Despite some bad reviews I purchased this drive to replace two older WD drives I had. Easily recognized by my PC and copied everything over correctly from other drives. I guess only time will tell if it functions correclty.