Hands On with Lacie's Gorgeous Sphere Hard Drive
Lacie melds 'old world luxury with modern technology' with its latest Sphere HDD.
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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Jane McEntegart is a writer, editor, and marketing communications professional with 17 years of experience in the technology industry. She has written about a wide range of technology topics, including smartphones, tablets, and game consoles. Her articles have been published in Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, MobileSyrup, and Edge Up.
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firefoxx04 over 400MB/s via usb2? I doubt it.That thing is huge and overpriced. WD and other brands have 1TB usb 3.0 offerings for under $100 that have realistic speed rating.Reply -
aevm @firefoxx04: 480 Mb/s (Mb with small b) means 60 MB/s. Mind you, I still doubt it. I have a USB flash drive that gets 170 MB/s in a USB 3.0 port and 30 MB/s in a USB 2 port. I suspect this sphere thing would also get 30 MB/s in my USB 2 port.Reply -
firefoxx04 aahhhh I guess I missed the lower case b. I stand corrected but I do agree, i doubt it will even get those kinds of speeds. All my USB 3 drives max at about 40MB/s and drop from there on long transfers.Reply -
applegetsmelaid This is perfect! I buy hard drives to make a fashion statement, not for storage space.Reply -
wittermark whats the point of a mobile storage solution that isn't mobile? with meager 1TB storage that takes that much real-estate space, even my 3TB enclosures stacked on top of each other is much easier to carry than this. what a garbage design.Reply