The Sharge Disk Pro is the wildest-looking SSD and USB dock I've ever seen

The Sharge Disk Pro is without a doubt the most unique-looking SSD I've ever seen. It's also, remarkably enough, the most unique-looking USB dock I've ever seen. And it manages those two feats while fitting into a credit-card sized fabric carry pocket.

We like unique things here on Creative Bloq, so when the opportunity to test it came up, I jumped on it like a cat on a laser dot.

The outcome? The Sharge Disk Pro is certainly a conversation-starter, and it's also pretty nifty as a portable SSD in particular (once I figured out how to switch it on)...

Key specifications

Design & build

The SHARGE DISK PRO unboxed! #unboxing #sharge #ssd #usbdock #tech - YouTube

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The Sharge Disk Pro is tiny. Especially when you consider what it contains. This portable SSD is also a USB dock with two USB-A ports, a USB-C port and an HDMI port, along with an attached USB-C cable and an on-board fan.

The whole thing measures 9 by 6 centimetres across, is only 1.1cm thick, and fits into a provided faux-leather pocket for super-easy portability. It weighs about 150 grams, so less than a compact smartphone, and has a magnetic back to snap onto other magnetic surfaces (meaning it will stick to my phone, any metallic laptop lid and it won't slide off my tower-PC, for example).

It's made with comfort in mind, clearly.

But even though I've described how it's built, I haven't described how it looks. Because that's the real kicker. The front is fully transparent, which means you can see the fan, the inner workings of the ports and the innards of the drive. Every port, button and light is neatly labelled, too. Not that it stopped me from completely failing to figure out how to switch the SSD on, mind you...

The back is a solid white surface with an air outlet for the fan on both the back and three sides of the drive. The attached cable then snaps neatly into the USB-C slot when not in use, folding along the drive with that same neatness you see from a loafing cat's tail. It's all very satisfying to look at and touch and hold. But what's it like to use?

Features & performance

As we've said already, the Sharge Disk Pro is rather unique, on account of being both a USB dock and an external SSD. That means you can hook your laptop up to an external monitor, connect peripherals (or additional flash drives) AND get an extra bit of storage space to save things onto.

Now, as the actual number of ports pales in comparison to the top USB docks for Mac and Windows users out there, it's not made to be your desk's connectivity centrepiece, but rather an on-the-go solution for hybrid workers and hot-deskers of the world, and as such, it's pretty much an instant hit.

Now, 'instant' depends on whether you are an idiot like me or whether you notice the little 'SSD ON' switch on the front before you hook it up to your equipment. I, on account of my unsurpassable observational powers, only noticed that this switch was made and included for that specific purpose more than two days after trying, and failing, to get the SSD to work with any of the many computers in my house.

To get the host system to recognise the device as an external drive, this switch needs to be flipped to 'ON'. I guess the reason that it needs switching on and off is for energy purposes, if you need to use the USB-C port for a non-power-contributing device, you won't be able to power the thing, as I understand it. (Again, I am an idiot.)

Once powered on, however, it's a really nifty lil' SSD with very decent transfer speeds. The Sandisk-built drive inside achieved over 938 MB/s read speeds in CrystalDiskMark testing (the SEQ1M test), and only a hair under 900 MB/s write speeds in the same test. In real-world terms, that means it can transfer over 23,000 hi-res photos per minute at peak speeds. It's... it's a lot.

By contrast, the USB connectivity is useful rather than spectacular. You can hook peripherals up to the USB-A drives and the USB-C port handles up to 10Gbps speeds as per the manufacturer's specs, along with up to 100W power throughput. The diminutive size does limit the number of ports, and thus any usefulness over basic hotdesking/hybrid-working assistance.

But hey, it looks super cool.

Price

Now for the bad news.

In its base configuration, with 1TB of storage aboard, the Sharge Disk Pro still sets you back a bone-chilling $289.90 before discounts, though at the moment this is written, you can score it for 'only' $269.90. 2TB will cost you $399.90 and the big boi 4TB model will set you back a frankly phenomenal $689.90.

Yes, it looks super cool. But that cool? I'll let people with more money than I have decide that.

At least you get a carry pouch with every unit, though...

Buy it if

• You need a portable SSD and USB dock in one
• You want people to come up to you and ask "what is that?!"
• You're financially solvent

Don't buy it if

• You don't care about how your accessories look
• A cheaper drive will work for you
• You don't want people to come up to you and ask "what is that?!"