Recap: Since smartphones began supporting portable solid-state drives, magnetic models have proliferated, offering easy attachment to devices. This year, major manufacturers started releasing portable SSDs with the latest USB protocols, making them well-suited for content creation and high-resolution video management on the go.

MSI's updated Datamag magnetic portable SSD combines high transfer speeds with massive storage, making it ideal for capturing and storing high-resolution, high-refresh-rate videos from smartphones, cameras, and other portable devices. The drive will be available soon at global retailers.

The new drive supports USB4, delivering read speeds up to 4 GB/s and write speeds up to 3.6 GB/s, depending on the device. Most magnetic SSDs currently use USB3.2, which maxes out at 2 GB/s – still fast enough to saturate the iPhone 17 Pro's 1 GB/s interface. For now, users will see the full benefit of faster drives only on newer computers with USB4 ports.

MSI offers the Datamag SSD in 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB capacities. The company highlights the drive's ability to record and store 4K 120Hz ProRes videos with the iPhone 16 Pro or iPhone 17 Pro, though it is compatible with many other devices. The Datamag also works as a standard portable SSD for Windows PCs, Macs, tablets, professional cameras, and game consoles.

Although pricing for the Datamag SSD remains unclear, it may be similar to Corsair's EX400U, introduced in January with comparable specs. That drive also supports 40Gbps USB4 and MagSafe technology, costing $139 for 1 TB, $199 for 2 TB, and $349 for 4 TB.

Portable devices released in 2025 are pushing pocket storage speeds and capacities higher. The Nintendo Switch 2, launched in June, uses the long-overlooked microSD Express card format to expand storage while offering faster loading times than its predecessor.

Meanwhile, GPD's latest handheld gaming PC, the GPD Win 5, introduced Biwin's new Mini SSD format. The drives are only slightly larger than microSD cards but deliver read speeds up to 3.7 GB/s, compared with microSD Express's 900 MB/s. It remains unclear whether more devices will adopt Mini SSDs, as Biwin is currently the only company using the format and may hold its rights.