CES 2025: Behold Planck, the ‘world’s smallest portable SSD’ designed for the iPhone

SSDs are certainly getting smaller, but one company at CES 2025 boasted that there was the “world’s smallest portable” SSD. After watching Plank from ShiftCam, it’s hard to argue with that.

Planck is a tiny rectangular dongle that connects to the bottom of the iPhone via USB-C. Unlike a flash drive, which has a connector on the shorter side, the Planck connector is placed right in the middle of the device, so it fits perfectly into the shape of the iPhone when connected.

I was surprised to see how thin the Planck was. Several times while checking it out, I had to remind myself that I wasn’t looking at an SSD card reader, which I thought Planck resembled in design. I was looking at a fully functional SSD.

Planck will help content creators leverage the iPhone’s camera and its ability to capture high-quality 4K Apple ProRes video. These videos take up a lot of space, so having a removable SSD of up to 2TB is definitely an upgrade for those who simply work with hundreds of gigabytes of space.

ShiftCam, the company behind Planck, makes easy-to-use iPhone accessories for content creators. Stands, ring lights, and even a portable dock and charger called the SnapGrip, which allows users to take photos and videos as if they were holding a DSLR camera, are all part of ShiftCam’s product portfolio. An SSD designed for mobile content creators seems to be a perfect fit for their target market.

The biggest thing that sets Planck apart from other lines is that most of the brand’s products use MagSafe, so they fit together easily. But ShiftCam also makes camera lenses for iPhones, so Planck isn’t the company’s first product to differentiate itself from the rest of its lineup.

The company also plans to launch a USB-C hub so users can connect multiple Planck drives to iPhones.

The Plank will launch at a special price of $125 for the 1TB model and $199 for the 2TB model during a crowdfunding campaign next month.