Lenovo's grenade-styled external SSD looks certain to delay you at airport security

Lenovo has revealed that it has designed a hand grenade-inspired external SSD. The design pays tribute to the recently released China blockbuster war movie Operation Dragon, also known as Operation Leviathan or Operation Hadal in some territories. Frequent fliers will probably want to avoid weapons-styled computer accessories and electronics like this, to prevent any unnecessary delays when passing through security.

A machine translation of the blurb in the above image reads: "Lenovo Crowdfunding - Savior Tactical Mobile SSD. Officially authorized hardcore aluminum alloy grenade shape. USB 3.2 high-speed protocol. Compatible with multiple specifications of SSD." There follows the logos for Lenovo Legion and Operation Hadal.

The top-linked official Lenovo crowdfunder page also indicates that the new grenade SSD is primed for crowdfunding success. Lenovo's project is 69% funded with several days left, and quite a few reports in Chinese language tech media today highlight this absurd product. It is therefore likely to be an explosive success (ba dum tss).

We don't have the specs for this Y599 (approx. $82) crowdfunded product except the few mentioned above. However, the grenade-styled external SSD is expected to feature 1TB of storage, perform data transfers at up to 1,050MB/s, and feature a USB Type-C interface. These specs are based on the assumption that the tactical SSD uses an existing Lenovo Legion (AKA Savior in China) portable SSD as its foundation.

A short history of weaponry styled PC components

Lenovo's war movie-inspired SSD isn't the first ill-advised design choice we have seen foisted upon the PCs and electronics market. Gigabyte has previously been guilty of producing motherboards with heatsinks that have been known to trigger airport scanners.

Perhaps Gigabyte's best-known airport security check impediment was the G1 Assassin 2 motherboard. This Intel X79 chipset board featured a "redesigned distinctive signature heatpipe design… that it is as deadly to heat as it looks." It looks like a pistol, and it even has a skull biting a bowie knife on the grip. New Zealand airport security ruined one of these motherboards with their investigations in 2015.

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Gigabyte would release an almost as audacious design with its Gaming G1 Sniper socket LGA 1366 motherboard. This featured a banana-mag heatsink design with a 'bullet' protruding from one end.

MSI also has a penchant for military-themed motherboards, but its Bazooka, Mortar, and the like have always avoided weapons-shaped heatsinks.

Still, a portable SSD is probably more likely to be carried by someone onto a plane, so Lenovo's 'Tactical SSD' maybe even a worse idea than Gigabyte's Assassin and Sniper products.