LaCie brings super-fast and super-sleek portable storage devices to CES 2014

LAS VEGAS -- If anything, LaCie aims to impress at CES 2014.

Apart from the Fuel, the storage vendor announced today two new remarkable portable storage devices, the new LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt 2 and the LaCie Sphere.

The LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt 2 is the major upgrade to the exciting Little Big Disk Thunderbolt that came out a few years ago. The new drive now supports Thunderbolt 2 and comes with two 500GB PCIe solid-state drive (SSD) on the inside in a RAID 0 configuration to offers the total of 1TB of storage space and superfast data speed of some 1,400MBps. To put this in perspective, that's some five times to the speed of even the fastest USB 3.0 storage device. With this type of speed, professionals can easily use it for real-time 4K video editing. And the compact design, which is exactly the same as that of the previous model, means that they can do that even when they're on the go.

Similar to its predecessor, the new Thunderbolt 2 Little Big Disk comes with a full aluminum enclosure, but now comes in black instead of white. The new LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt 2 will be available for purchase in the first quarter of 2014, with an estimated price that lands somewhere between $1,500 and $2,000, with a three-year warranty included.

The LaCie Sphere, on the other hand, is a USB 3.0 portable drive so it doesn't have the above speed to impress. Instead, it more than makes up in the design. This is the first portable drive on the market that comes in a super sleek silver-plated steel spherical chassis. The drive looks like a piece of jewelry, and in fact it's very much a piece of jewelry with a portable drive attached on the inside.

Partnered with Christofle, a French luxury silvercraft brand founded in 1830, LaCie created the Sphere as a luxurious piece of technology. The drive is enclosed in a handcrafted spherical case of steel. According to Lacie, due to its round shape, the LaCie Sphere requires a careful manual plating process. After than the entire sphere is plated in silver, stamped, and finally polished for a exceptional shininess in Christofle's silversmith workshop in Normandy, France. The result is a highly reflective finish that makes the hard drive a decorative piece for any home or workstation.

The LaCie Sphere is slated to be available in the first quarter of 2014 in a single 1TB capacity, and with the estimated price of $450.

Check back after CES for the full review of the LaCie Sphere and the new Little Big Disk Thunderbolt 2.

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