We’ve combed through and tested no shortage of USB 3.0 thumb drives. While they never fail to impress for slinging Breaking Bad episodes from computer to computer in record time, design has never been a strong point. For the most part, most of the drives we’ve seen use tacky plastic shells with cheap sliding mechanisms that make us want to drop them in a pocket and forget about them.
That’s not the case for Lacie’s new Porsche Design USB key, which might be the first we would be proud to display on a keychain. Preferably next to the key for a certain German-made automobile.
Sleek and minimal, the key looks almost like a USB connector stretched out to the length of a stick of gum, dressed in brushed steel for a clean look. A square hole in the corner provides a spot to hook it on your keyring – no lanyard needed. On the underside, the exposed part of the USB connector gets a dollop of LaCie’s signature blue.
Industrial design aside, the drive should move your files around quickly: LaCie promises peak transfer speeds of up to 95MB per second (though drives rarely reach these advertised speeds in real life). The company offers both 32GB and 64GB versions, priced at $30 and $50, respectively.
This isn’t the first time LaCie has coordinated with Porsche Design – the companies also coordinated on a line of USB 3.0 hard drives with the same style. In the past, the company has also teamed up with Christofle Galet and Philippe Starck.
