Rather than the matte black boxes we’re used to seeing, Lenovo has shaken things up by fashioning its latest external SSD after a flashbang grenade. That’s certainly one way to catch the eyes of your peers, for better or worse.
It’s a strange choice to dress a harmless component up as a weapon, particularly as it could very easily cause a public scare or see you stopped by airport security, but it comes from a good place. Lenovo created the solid-state drive to celebrate Operation Dragon, a China-released blockbuster war movie that also goes by the names Operation Leviathan Operation Hadal.
If nothing else, the bold aluminium design provides high durability and shock resistance. It certainly speaks to the military enthusiasts and Call of Duty fans here at Club386 and would be a perfect complement to your tank PC.
Going off the official poster, the device is called a “Savior Tactical Mobile SSD” via machine translation but Google takes a different route by dubbing it a “Rescuer SSD.” Whatever its title, you won’t find one on store shelves, as it’s entirely crowfunded.
The usual caveats apply, as crowdfunded items are an investment rather than a guaranteed product, but this is familiar territory for Lenovo, who has released some 90 products using the method. At the time of writing, it’s a whopping success with 314 backers, raising 105% of the allocation with over three weeks remaining.
I’m not exactly sure what its CN¥599 (approximately $82 / £67) encompasses aside from a high-speed USB 3.2 connection, as Lenovo is tight-lipped on the details. My best guess is the same as our friends at Tom’s Hardware, estimating 1TB capacities at 1,050MB/s transfer speeds for this price. This is all presuming Lenovo uses its Legion / Savior portable SSDs as a foundation, which already comes in 512GB and 2TB models, indicating what we could see next if demand is high enough.
For my side, I will stick with simple USB drives due to cost and convenience. However, for a decorative gadget, I definitely see the appeal.
