Sharge, the company that makes delightful retro Mac-shaped chargers and see-inside batteries, is finally impressing me with a portable SSD. I couldn’t recommend the Sharge Disk, Disk Plus, or even the Disk Pro, but I’d be happy to own the new Disk Pro 2 Ultra.
This isn’t just a drive. It’s a 4K HDMI dock and a USB-C hub too. It’s a veritable USB-C Swiss Army Knife for all your main gadgets: laptop, tablet, phone, Steam Deck, even the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2.
And this USB multitool has built-in MagSafe pattern magnets to stick it to your iPhone, Pixel, or anything where you’re willing to stick a magnetic ring. (One stick-on ring is included.)
In total, this pack-of-playing-cards-sized gadget adds one 4K 144Hz HDMI 2.1 video output, a 5Gbps USB-A port, SD and microSD card readers, plus USB-C passthrough charging — plus a slot to add up to 8TB of solid-state storage with a full-sized M.2 2280 (or smaller M.2 2242 and 2230) stick SSDs.
By plugging in a single cord, I gave my MacBook Pro a second external monitor, four simultaneous sources of storage (SSD, USB flash drive, SD, microSD), and 80W of USB-C PD juice.
And when I plugged in my Android phone and a USB-C iPhone, both of them saw the SSD and showed up on my HDMI screen. It also unlocked 4K60 ProRes video recording on the iPhone… more on that in a minute.
Some of these features exist together in other gadgets, and this 10Gbps external SSD enclosure certainly isn’t the fastest in town now that 40Gbps and 80Gbps enclosures exist. With big 100GB and 195GB transfers, my write speeds with a budget 1TB Lexar NM710 in the Disk Pro 2 averaged around 700MB/s.
I stuck a magnetic ring to my MacBook so I could hang the Disk Pro 2 on the back of its lid. Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge
But that’s still nothing to sneeze at, and how many enclosures double as USB-C HDMI docks, let alone ones that speak Nintendo’s language and magnetically attach to your phone? How many have a built-in fan to keep them cool? And how many are low-power enough that you can power the HDMI and USB ports from your phone or laptop, no need for a power cord?
Things get a little tricky with the low wattage, though.
First, Sharge is selling two models of the Disk Pro 2, the “Ultra” that requires at least 1.5W of USB-C bus power, and and the “Lite” which needs 5W for its more power-hungry chips (and only does 4K60 over HDMI 2.0, instead of 4K144 over HDMI 2.1).
Second, to achieve such low power draw on the Ultra, it can only route 3W of power from your laptop or phone to a connected SSD, Sharge marketing manager Leo H. tells me. Reviews show my borrowed Lexar NM710 draws more than that during writes — and sure enough, the Disk Pro 2 shut down right after I started ProRes video recording on an iPhone 15 Pro or a big transfer on my Galaxy S25.
(There’s a simple solution: just plug an external USB-C battery or charger into the Disk Pro 2. When I did that, I recorded over five minutes of 4K60 ProRes video, no problem. You could instead try to find a lower-power SSD.)
The main HDMI, USB-A, and USB-C charger port are all on one edge. Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge
Third, while the HDMI dock does work with both my Switch 2 and my original Switch, Nintendo’s handhelds explicitly check for a relatively specific external power source before docking. Sharge is still tweaking the firmware, but says I currently need a 85W or higher USB-C PD charger plugged in for Switch 2 in particular.
You should also know there’s a long pause before the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 appear on a connected TV, like some other third-party docks, and you won’t get variable refresh rate (VRR) with a Steam Deck or other PC handhelds. It does 4K144 and 4K120 with HDR, but the Steam Deck claims my VRR TV is not VRR-capable with the Disk Pro 2 as a go-between.
And while I successfully worked with a mouse, keyboard, headset, monitor, webcam, and more plugged into the Disk Pro 2 for several days — by daisy-chaining an extra USB hub — I did occasionally see the monitor go dark for a minute, roughly once a day.
There’s still work for Sharge to do. But it’s the first drive from the company that I’d happily add to my go bag.
Sharge Disk (yellow), Disk Plus (silver), Disk Pro (fixed cable), and Disk Pro 2 (detachable cable). Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge
The original Sharge Disk was a bulky dongle with a ridiculously noisy tiny fan. The Disk Plus marketed itself as barely-there stylishly thin SSD enclosure that magnetically attaches to your phone, but the magnets were actually a stick-on accessory that made the drive much thicker. The first Sharge Disk Pro had a power port so tiny and recessed that most charging cables wouldn’t fit, and buttons that could actually cut power to the drive mid-transfer.
IMO, Sharge should’ve done more user testing before releasing these predecessors. Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge
The Disk Pro 2 fixes all that. The included cable is now detachable, the magnets are built-in, the ports are no longer weirdly recessed, the fan isn’t noisy by default, you can turn off that fan entirely, the switch doesn’t cut power to the drive, and the drive has a larger airflow path. Plus, you can bring your own SSD — though I’d prefer toolless swaps to the current screws.
No more heavily recessed USB ports. Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge
You won’t always see much higher transfer speeds turning that fan on full blast. My 195GB transfer took 4 minutes and 55 seconds with the fan on full power, and 5 minutes 5 seconds with it off — a difference of just 10 seconds, even though I let it cool between tests. The real difference is the one I felt when trying to pick up the Disk Pro 2 afterwards. Without fan, the metal sides were burning hot to the touch.
The Disk Pro 2 Ultra is $75 on Kickstarter for early bird and will be $89 full retail. While the typical caveats apply with Kickstarter projects, Sharge has a very solid track record for shipping (even if it’s hit and miss on design).
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