LaCie’s Rugged Portable Drives Gain Thunderbolt 3 And USB-C Connectivity
Wrapped in a tough orange shell, the new "LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt USB-C" (not the sexiest product name in the world) trades a micro USB port for a USB-C port so that users can connect the drive to USB 3.0-compatible computers as well as to USB-C Thunderbolt 3 models. It also features an integrated Thunderbolt cable that is compatible with first generation Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt 2.
The new drives come in capacities of up to 5TB, offering plenty of backup storage on the go. Performance gets a bump, too. This varies by model, though looking at the 1TB SSD version, LaCie says it can deliver speeds of up 510MB/s, a 30 percent increase over the previous SSD generation. At that speed, a user could transfer 100GB of content in about three minutes.
As for durability, nothing has changed here. LaCie's Rugged drives are still built to withstand harsh environments with IP54-rated resistance to the elements. That means you don't have to baby the device, though we wouldn't recommend being intentionally careless with it, either. According to LaCie, the drive can withstand drops of up to two meters (6.6 feet), dust, water, and even being run over by a 1-ton car.
The new LaCie Rugged drives will come in 2TB, 4TB, and 5TB HDD models and 500GB and 1TB SSD capacities starting at $250.