Dockcase Explorer Edition Pro: External housing for M.2 SSDs with smart features on Kickstarter

After the classic 3.5-inch hard drives and conventional 2.5-inch SATA SSDs, NVMe and SATA SSDs in the small M.2 format have long since made their way onto the external storage media market , as well as the associated housing for your own retrofitting. Already in the second generation, the Seesaw company wants to stand out on Kickstarter and is again giving the new Dockcase Explorer Edition Pro various features that are otherwise rather unusual.

For example, the 127 x 39 x 14 millimeter large and partially transparent housing provides a view of installed M.2 SSDs with NVMe or SATA protocol with up to 4 TB of storage capacity, with up to 10 Gbit/s and 6 Gbit/s respectively can be transmitted via USB 3.2 Gen 2. Meanwhile, a color LCD panel with 240 x 240 pixels on a 1.33 inch screen diagonal displays monitoring data for the storage medium. This includes temperatures, power supply, status, partition information or the status of the integrated Power Loss Protection (PLP).

PLP, price and release

The latter is guaranteed by a built-in capacitor, which can supply the SSD with energy for another ten seconds in the event of a power failure in order to avoid data loss as far as possible. For end devices with insufficient USB power supply, such as smartphones, there is a second USB type C port on board, which can optionally provide an additional 15 watts. SSDs in the M.2 formats 2230, 2242, 2260 and 2280 can be installed.

The original funding goal of $5,000 for the Dockcase Explorer Edition Pro on Kickstarter has already been exceeded with currently more than 123,000 US dollars. However, supporters can still get a copy at a reduced price for 79 US dollars and thus a 30 dollar discount on the upcoming RRP of 109 dollars. Deliveries are scheduled to start in February 2023.