With the death of microSD cards in smartphones, the storage that you buy is all that you’ll ever get. Sure, you can use cloud storage, but that puts you at the mercy of an Internet connection. It’s not always available, as some might want you to believe, and it’s not always fast, especially for large files.
Nothing beats local storage in terms of speed and security, but OTG (on-the-go) USB flash drives for phones only have so much capacity. SSDs are the king of fast and compact data storage, and this rather unusual design puts as much as 2TB at your disposal, sticking securely to the back of your phone so you won’t have to deal with dangling cables while recording video or taking photos.
Designer: Dockcase
You can already connect external drives to smartphones these days, but even the smallest SSD would be left dangling when you pick up the phone. Yes, you can hold both in your hand like how some hold a power bank, but that makes things just awkward and sometimes dangerous. Thankfully, MagSafe technology now lets us stick things to the back of the phone, so why not an SSD as well?
The Dockcase MagSafe M.2 NVMe SSD enclosure does exactly that, coming in the form of a small puck that attaches magnetically to the back of your phone. It still needs a USB-C connection for data and a bit of power, but it can be a very short one that won’t get tangled in your hand. This design is perfect for mobile photographers as it can let them easily record even 4K videos directly to the storage, depending on the camera app being used.
This device, however, is just an enclosure, so you’ll have to buy and put in a compatible SSD module. This, however, offers more flexibility, as you can have up to 2TB in storage and, if needed, swap out modules. It also has a square LCD display that, at the push of a button, can show important information about the SSD inside.
Although it can technically be used with any computer that can read SSD storage via USB-C, Dockcase was clearly intended for use with iPhones and MagSafe-compatible phones or cases. It even has passthrough charging so you can keep the enclosure connected and charge your phone at the same time. It’s a rather simple yet elegant design that solves the data storage problem of smartphones today.
