Sharge Disk Pro 2 Review: A Portable SSD That Doubles as a Dock and Hub
The card-deck-sized portable drive from Sharge packs a 4K HDMI dock, a USB-C hub, and MagSafe magnets for your phone, laptop, and Nintendo Switch.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
- Sharge Disk Pro 2 combines an external SSD with a 4K HDMI dock and USB-C hub
- Built-in MagSafe-pattern magnets attach securely to iPhones and compatible phones
- Supports M.2 SSDs up to 8TB and includes a variety of versatile I/O ports
- Available in Ultra and Lite models designed with different power requirements
Sharge, the company well-known for its retro Macintosh-shaped chargers and transparent power banks, is turning heads again with a brand-new portable storage device. According to The Verge senior editor Sean Hollister, while previous iterations like the Sharge Disk, Disk Plus, and Disk Pro failed to win him over, the new Sharge Disk Pro 2 Ultra is finally an EDC gear worth owning.
This device goes far beyond a standard storage drive, functioning simultaneously as a 4K HDMI dock and a USB-C hub. It serves as a true USB-C Swiss Army knife for major gadgets including laptops, tablets, smartphones, Steam Decks, and both the original Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, all housed in a chassis roughly the size of a pack of playing cards.
Another standout feature is the integration of MagSafe-pattern magnets, allowing the hub to snap right onto an iPhone, Pixel, or any phone equipped with an adhesive magnetic ring, with one ring included in the box. The gadget also adds a 4K 144Hz HDMI 2.1 video output, a 5Gbps USB-A port, SD and microSD card readers, USB-C passthrough charging, and an internal slot supporting full-sized M.2 2280 (or smaller 2242 and 2230) stick SSDs for up to 8TB of storage.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
Plugging in a single cable allowed Hollister to hook up his MacBook Pro to a second external monitor, access four concurrent storage sources including SSD, flash drive, SD, and microSD, and pump 80W of USB-C PD power into the laptop. Testing write speeds with a budget 1TB Lexar NM710 inside the enclosure averaged around 700MB/s, which might not compete with blistering 40Gbps or 80Gbps drives, but remains impressive given the form factor.
"How many enclosures double as USB-C HDMI docks, let alone ones that speak Nintendo’s language and magnetically attach to your phone?"
Sean Hollister
Combining an external solid-state drive with video output docks and expansion ports into a single ultra-compact enclosure addresses the modern need to eliminate dongle clutter. However, multi-function hardware drawing power across multiple fronts often introduces strict power budgeting limitations, especially when driving power-hungry video chips, data buses, and storage media simultaneously from a single host source.
Power management does introduce minor caveats. Sharge offers two variants: the Ultra model, requiring at least 1.5W of bus power, and the Lite model, which demands 5W for its power-hungry chips while maxing out at 4K60 over HDMI 2.0 instead of 4K144 over HDMI 2.1. Sharge marketing manager Leo H. explains that to maintain such low power draw on the Ultra version, it can only route 3W of power from a connected laptop or phone to the internal SSD. Consequently, intensive tasks like recording ProRes video on an iPhone 15 Pro or executing heavy file transfers on a Galaxy S25 caused the drive to shut down due to power limits, though plugging an external battery or charger directly into the Disk Pro 2 easily resolves the issue.
Compatibility with Nintendo's consoles is another area requiring attention. While the HDMI dock successfully outputs video from both the original Switch and Switch 2, Nintendo's handhelds strictly verify specific external power sources prior to docking. Sharge is currently refining firmware, but users currently need an 85W or higher USB-C PD charger plugged into the dock specifically for the Switch 2, alongside a noticeable delay before the image appears on screen and a lack of Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) support for PC handhelds like the Steam Deck.
Source: The Verge
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