Lexar to take on Samsung, SanDisk with a portable SSD

The regular external hard drive you use to backup notes, documents, photos, music, and more may be in line for getting replaced in the near future, what with the availability of high-speed solid state drives and all.

We saw Samsung and SanDisk each release one last year, and now that Samsung has another model being shown at CES, you can bet other memory makers are sitting up and taking notice, choosing the right moment to announce their own wares.

For Lexar, that moment is this week as well, with Lexar’s Portable SSD being announced over at CES in Las Vegas, where the Micron-owned storage maker has taken the time to tell the world that it will have two varieties arriving within the next few months.

When they arrive, you’ll find Lexar’s Portable Solid State Drive in both a 256GB and a 512GB option, and while they don’t really offer a complex design, they will deliver something a little old school on the driver, with an LED-based capacity meter to tell you how much space is left simply by glancing at the drive.

Forget needing to hit the command key and the letter “i”, or even right clicking the drive and selecting properties, because your storage amount can be measured simply by plugging the drive in and glancing down at how many white LEDs have been lit up.

“Driven by the demand for quick, easy, and mobile access to content, SSDs are being recognised as a key supplemental storage solution for everyday use by professionals across industries, including photographers and videographers,” said Steffi Ho, Product Marketing Manager at Lexar.

“The Lexar Portable SSD seamlessly manages personal, entertainment, and business content, and is another example of our commitment to meeting our customers’ evolving storage needs.”

Like many things at CES, there is no word on official pricing for Australia yet, but given the US has prices off around $150USD for the 256GB and $250 for the 512GB, you can more or less expect Aussies to have a little over a hundred or so over each value by the time it reaching our side of the world.