LaCie’s Rugged Mini External Hard Drive Is Not Large

Let’s say you’re LaCie, manufacturer par excellence of mid-to-high-end external hard drives. Are you LaCie now? Good. And let’s say you’ve put out a Rugged hard drive and a Rugged XL hard drive. Where do you go next? XXL? Extra-regular size? No, no, you put on your robe and marketing hat and, because you now know people like small things, you decide to make the Rugged Mini. Genius!

As you can see, it’s small enough to fit in your pocket, though I don’t think it’ll look very natural.

Yes, LaCie’s new drive is rugged-ish and small. These things aren’t waterproof or bulletproof (the aluminum enclosure is thin and perforated), but it’s big rubber bumper protects against jostles, drops, and so on.

The USB 3.0-powered Mini will come in 500GB ($100, $120 for 7200RPM) and 1TB ($160) flavors. Available “soon” but not immediately.