For those of you who can’t seem to pass a single day without your USB key getting hit by a truck, incinerated or dropped to the bottom of a lake, LaCie has an apparent solution for your extraordinarily bad luck – or at least to keep your data intact. The company’s new XtremKey USB drive boasts resistance to drops, extreme temperatures, water, and weight.
How much will it handle? According to LaCie, the XtremKey will survive drops from up to 16 feet, temperatures between 392 and -58 degrees Fahrenheit, weight up to 10 tons, and submersion in water up to 333 feet.
Like the Corsair Survivor, the XtremKey actually takes the form of a conventional-looking stick drive that screws into an ultra-tough metal canister. Unlike the Survivor, it’s hasn’t been cast from aluminum but instead from zamac, an alloy of zinc, aluminum, magnesium and copper. In a typical LaCie fashion, it’s also the work of a recognized French industrial designer – Constance Guisset – who gave it the smooth, tapered profile.
The drive uses a USB 2.0 interface, offering write speeds up to 30 MBps and read speeds up to 40 MBps.
The XtremKey will be available in August from the LaCie Online Store with capacities between 8GB and 64GB and pricing starting at $50. We’ve also managed to wrangle a review unit with intent to destroy, so check back soon for a video testing the real-life performance of the LaCie XtremKey.
In the mean time, LaCie also has its own XtremKey demo. Check it out below!
