At CES this week Kingston unveiled the world's largest capacity USB flash drive, the DataTraveler HyperX Predator 3.0.
The flash drive is available now with 512GB, and a 1-terabyte version will become available before the end of Q1.
In addition to having the largest capacity ever, the HyperX Predator is "the fastest USB 3.0 Flash drive in the Kingston family," with read/write speeds up to 240MB and 160MB per second, according to a press release distributed at CES.
But all that speed and capacity won't come cheap.
It costs how much?!
Kingston has yet to reveal how much the 1TB flash drive will cost, and representatives of the southern California company at CES would only refer to the 512GB model's price when queried by TechRadar.
That alone reveals plenty, though, as the 512GB Predator goes for a suggested retail price of $1,750 (UK£1,092, AU$1,656).
A Kingston representative told TechRadar to expect an equivalent price for the larger 1-terabyte flash drive.
On Wednesday, tech site Pocket Lint reported that the 1-terabyte Predator will cost $3,400 in the U.S., though that number has not been confirmed by Kingston.
That kind of price tag is no joke, but the company rep told TechRadar that the high-capacity USB stick is a niche product - one meant for a particular group of consumers who, said the Kingston rep, over the years have expressed to Kingston that price is no issue when it comes to high-capacity portable storage.
It had better be durable
Even so, all that data will need protecting, and at that price you wouldn't want the Predator to break underfoot or in your luggage - to that end, the drive is made of a durable zinc alloy metal that provides a tough, shock-resistant housing, according to Kingston.
The HyperX Predator flash drives, as well as the more practical 32GB and 64GB DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 Generation 3 USB sticks that Kingston also unveiled at CES, feature a sliding design and matte metallic finish.
They look like something out of Transformers, but if that's what it takes to keep all that data safe then so be it.
