LaCie has announced three new additions to their external SSD storage line for videographers and photographers working on the go with full-sized media. These include the Rugged SSD Pro sporting Thunderbolt 3, the Rugged SSD with USB 3.1 Type-C, and the Rugged BOSS SSD with built-in SD card slot for direct transfers.
LaCie Rugged SSD Pro Thunderbolt 3 External SSD
Aimed at videographers working with footage up to 8K resolution or super-slow motion frame rates, the LaCie Rugged SSD Pro uses a Seagate FireCuda NVMe SSD inside and is capable of speeds up to 2,800 MB/s through Thunderbolt 3. According to LaCie, the Rugged SSD Pro “features the latest Thunderbolt 3 controller and is the first Thunderbolt 3 portable storage solution offering USB 3.1.”
The Rugged SSD Pro is IP67-rated dust and water resistant, can withstand 3 meter drops, and can resist a 2-ton car driving over it. LaCie points out that the drive can be immersed in 1 meter of water for up to 30 minutes.
Available at the end of September 2019, the LaCie Rugged SSD Pro will be priced at $399.99 for 1 TB of storage and $699.99 for 2 TB. Preorders are being taken now.
LaCie Rugged USB 3.1 Type-C External SSD
The non-Pro version of the LaCie Rugged SSD calms things down a little bit, but still offers up to 4K raw editing capabilities. It offers speeds of up to 950 MB/s and is still IP67 rated, has a 3 meter drop tolerance, and crush resistance to handle being run over by a 2-ton car.
The LaCie Rugged USB 3.1 Type-C External SSD ships at the end of the month and will come in 500 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB configurations with prices ranging from $179.99 to $499.99.
LaCie Rugged BOSS External SSD
Lastly, yet the product I’m most excited about, is the LaCie Rugged BOSS SSD. This external drive comes with 1 TB of storage, has an integrated SD card slot, and can transfer card files directly with speeds up to 430 MB/s. The built-in status screen on the top of the drive will show updates on transfer completion, capacity, and battery life. Once your files are transferred to the drive, the LaCie BOSS app for iOS and Android will allow one to view, name, and delete media. As a laptop to iPad Pro convert, I’m ready to give this solution a shot.
The LaCie Rugged BOSS External SSD will also be available at the end of September for $449.99.
Wow...those prices are steep...
Especially the Rugged Boss. I'm also a laptop to iPad Pro convert...but I think i'll stick to the Toshiba at that price.
Yeah it may not be an "auto backup" solution but with iOS 13 being able to access read/write portable drives without having to live inside the Photos import, that is -really- looking steep, in the face of a Samsung T5 being pocketable and USB C.
I'd be more tempted -IF- it wasn't as huge as it is. The sum of the sort of first-gen looking tech getting a current gen price tag to boot. Is the "screen" really the entire face of the unit? Let's streamline and tighten that design, LaCie.
Maybe it’s just my install, but iPadOS hasn’t been too reliable for working with drives and memory cards in the Files app. Copying a few things, sure... moving thousands of raw images, oh hells no. With only another couple weeks before public release I’m losing faith in it being fixed anytime soon.
I should have been more clear in my commentary. Funny thing is, I jumped on the public beta a while back and after moving over a couple 128GB cards worth of stuff already backed up, I wanted to see how viable the current implementation was...I found it lacking, in a sort of frightening way.
I agree with you. Not stable enough, and hopefully there's enough noise made during public release that anything slippery gets patched up. Personally my issue was that copying 500-1000 files, seemed to do (in terms of speed) fine with the UHS-I cards I was testing at the time.
BUT. Though the images I was playing with were already backed up (locally and cloud) on my main editing workstation, I got curious after editing a few, and decided to take the cards back into the reader(s) on my PC, and popped them back into the camera after selecting "keep" on the cards when the iPad did it's thing.
Sony A7iii, didn't recognize any images when trying to view them. Display errors, but could see the number of files on the card. *starts sweating*
Same exact thing on the PC, only this time the computer just threw hands up and gave me the "there's something wrong with this drive" when the card got inserted. *starts cursing*
Wiped the cards, and uninstalled the beta and back to iOS12 that same night.
So while the intent is there, I am hesitant. But still, for the price LaCie is asking, I'd rather jump on something like a Gnarbox and it's greater range of features (albeit smaller capacity for similar pricing) than something that -should- be able to be designed -much- smaller, and larger in capacity, for that price.
I was a Lacie lover 'till 5 years ago, last 2 i bought were a mistake ( and payed a lot of money ) with a ridicolous customer care, last one was replaced 4 times with the shipping payed by me, at the end i gave up and bought WD, now i got a really beautiful ornament on my table
This is the thing with hard drives. No consumer hard drives ever have unanimous good reviews. It put me off on buying backup storage for so long because there was never a clear and obvious product to buy, since according to customers all of them were terrible and all of them gave them a terrible experience trying to fix them. Not saying your trouble wasn’t real at all, just that every hard drive brand has the same story attached to them.
Agreed. It's impossible to find a unanimously well reviewed external hard drive. I have at least 4 different brands fail on me over the years. Currently I use LaCie, Samsung and even OWC's in-house brand. It depends what's on sale (and, what meets my basic requirements). In the end, the all function at much the same level - at least for storage and back up of still frames.
It's sort of nerve wracking, isn't it? How pretty much any of them, even in 2019, can just be a cheap on up to "second mortgage" expensive time bomb? I have a 500GB drive that sports a thick as a can of soup firewire cable you don't see much of anymore, and it was purchased for lord knows how much back in....2005? It's just got stuff I don't care about on it, like MP3s (LOL) of bands I don't even recall or listen to anymore, but...it's still spinning just fine? Its so ugly though. I think I'm just waiting to see when it kicks it. It's outlived so many other drives.
I use a my passport pro and the ability to auto copy your photos direct to the HDD is awesome whilst travelling.