Twopan Nano SSD

Portable storage usually forces a trade-off between capacity, speed, security and size. The Twopan Nano SSD is the Los Angeles startup's attempt to fit all four into something closer to a car key fob than a conventional external drive.

Small body, practical capacity

According to the maker, the drive measures roughly 40mm × 15mm × 5mm and weighs 19g, with 512GB of storage inside. Twopan positions it for everyday backups as well as photos, video and audio, and says it can be clipped to a keyring or tucked into an inner bag pocket.

Fingerprint-locked by design

Security is the central pitch. The maker says the Nano SSD uses a hardware-level fingerprint authentication system with hardware encryption, so only a registered user's fingerprint can unlock it. Twopan frames this as a step beyond simple password protection, intended to keep data out of reach if the drive is lost.

• USB 3.2 Gen1 (Type-C) connection, with transfer speeds of up to 550MB per second, according to the maker
• Connects to PCs, smartphones and tablets with a single cable
• High-strength aluminium alloy housing that the maker describes as resistant to impact and heat
• Low power consumption intended to limit battery drain on phones

Where Twopan wants to take it

Twopan describes the product as a portable, secure personal space, an offline alternative for users wary of cloud privacy. The company reportedly is considering higher-capacity versions, a team-sharing model supporting multiple registered fingerprints, and integration with facial recognition. The source also states that the Kickstarter project approached roughly 6000% of its funding goal within days of launch.