Last night, we got a chance to go hands on with Lacie's newest line of products just ahead of CES's official opening this morning. The venue was Pepcom's Digital Experience showcase at the Mirage Hotel on the Las Vegas strip. The perfect setting for Lacie's sleek, shiny, oppulent Sphere.
The Sphere resembles a crystal ball and was designed by Christofle. Inside is 1 TB of storage space with USB 3.0 to help those data transfers along. Lacie lists the interface transfer rate at up to 5 Gb/s with USB 3.0 or up to 480 Mb/s via USB 2.0. The whole thing weighs in at 500g, or just over one pound, so it feels solid, but it's not crazy heavy either.
One of the downsides is that its mirrored surface collects fingerprints like crazy. The device actually had a little sign next to it saying "DO NOT TOUCH" (we definitely touched, oops) and there were Lacie reps on hand with cloths to wipe away smudges left by filthy rule breakers.
That said, it's not the fingerprints that will put people off. We'd wager the price is the hardest pill to swallow. There's just the one 1 TB model and Lacie is charging $490 for it. That's not cheap for 1 TB of storage. Then again, it's beautiful to look at, so those that have the money might not mind splashing out. Availability is set for sometime this quarter.
Check out all of our CES 2014 coverage!
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