External storage drives are things you rarely use or are part of your everyday tech gear. SSD versions are usually small, lightweight, and very durable, but best of all, they are not very expensive. Unlike newer SSDs, they are also very portable. Pro Mini from Iodyne (via The edge) which requires a selling price of $1,500, except for five dollars.
Granted, that's for the 4TB model (the 8TB is a relative bargain at $2,195), but what exactly are you getting for the same price as a really good hard drive? RTX 4070 Super Gaming PC or two Advantages of the PS5? A lot of tech features, that's right, though whether any of them interest you or not is another matter.
Let’s start with the fact that it has active cooling, which as far as I know, is not something most external SSDs have. Completely fanless, the Iodyne Pro Mini features a dual cooling system. Frore AirJet cooling systemwhich is all solid state and sophisticated technology. You might wonder why such a device needs a cooler, but I suspect it's because the whole thing uses a custom processor and NAND flash chips, designed by Iodyne.
I don't think it's because of the data transfer speed, despite using USB4Iodyne claims a sustained transfer rate of 3GB/s, which is certainly faster than external SSDs (which typically only peak at 2GB/s), but this is not the case. super Fast. Still, it's nothing to sneeze at, and since it's USB4, it will work in any USB port, as well as Thunderbolt.
The Pro Mini is aimed at professional content creators, so the rest of its features are focused on security. For example, it can be unlocked using an NFC key on the phone and has optional support for Apple and Google's device location tracking network (via Bluetooth beacon).
Everything stored on the drive is encrypted using the XTS-AES-256 (PDF warning) algorithm and there is even RAID 6 redundancy, suggesting that there is a batch of NAND flash chips inside the aluminum casing.
Rounding out the “oh, how fancy” features is a 2.1-inch e-paper display, with a resolution of 240 x 146. The display is powered by a battery that recharges every time you plug it in, and the screen can be configured to display anything from a simple name and date to the amount of storage used and even QR and barcodes.
I can't see any details about the Pro Mini's exact size and weight on Iodyne's site, but as you can see in the video above, it doesn't look especially bulky or heavy. To be honest, I think the whole thing looks pretty cool, even though it's not something I'd ever need. But that price tag… my god, that's a lot of money.
Of course, there are a lot of elements inside that are unique to Iodyne, and the company uses relatively few off-the-shelf components. But that still seems like an awful lot of money to invest in something, when you can get two LaCie Rugged Pro 4TB External SSDs ($629.99 at Amazon) and a 1TB LaCie Rugged Pro 4TB External SSD ($629.99 at Amazon). Amazon) for the same price.
However, the LaCie drive does not have the same feature set as the Pro Mini.
If all those features are just what you need and you work in an industry where performance and security are paramount, then it's probably right up your alley. Unfortunately, Iodyne is only accepting pre-orders at the moment and only through Channel PartnersThe first orders are expected to ship early next year.
