60W Pocket Cloud is a microSD card reader with 60W USB PD passthrough for your smartphone that works with Android (USB-C) and iOS (USB-C or Lightning) mobile devices, as well as other hosts with a spare USB port.
Once upon a time, smartphone manufacturers would include a microSD card socket in their devices, but those have now become harder to find. If your device’s spare storage is getting dangerously low, you’d need to either purchase cloud storage or connect a microSD card reader to the USB-C port of your phone. The latter works, except you can’t charge your phone when it’s connected. Conner’s 60W Pocket Cloud brings back microSD card storage support to mobile devices, while still allowing USD PD charging during use.
60W Pocket Cloud specifications:
- Chipset – Vinpower iVP309 flash controller chip with 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), SD 3.0 UHS-I, SDCX SD card interface, USB PD support
- Storage – MicroSD card slot up to 2TB, up to 104 MB/s data transfers
- Host interface
- USB Type-C male port or USB Type-C female port via cable
- Lightning supported via an optional USB-C to Lightning cable
- Power Supply
- 5V via a USB port on the host OR
- Up to 60W USD PD charging via USB Type-C passthrough
- OS support – Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS; Linux is likely supported since it’s mostly a USB card reader
- Dimensions – About 50 x 30 x 8 mm
- Weight – 10 grams
- Certifications – MFI certified
Android smartphones must come with an OTG-capable USB-C port for the device to work. When connected over USB-C, the 60W Pocket Cloud can be powered through the host’s battery/power supply or an external USB power supply. When connected over Lightning, a USB power supply is required since Lightning iPhones don’t power accessories. It also works with laptops, mini PCs, single board computers, and other compatible host computers as a card reader with USB PD passthrough.
Besides the hardware itself, Pocket Cloud is supported by Vinpower’s BackupBOT mobile app for Android and iOS, which allows users to back up part of their files (e.g., photos and videos only) or the entire data on their smartphone, play music or videos from the attached “Storage+ USB drive”, or directly save photos or videos to the microSD card.
When I first saw the 60W Pocket Cloud, I thought it was ridiculous, since it just looked like a USB Type-C microSD card reader. However, support for USD PD passthrough made it a bit more interesting, and the mobile app could also be useful. It still doesn’t feel like a sturdy and convenient solution for permanent storage, as it might break or at least become loose when stored in a pocket. You’ll decide.
Conner launched the 60W Pocket Cloud on Kickstarter with a lowly 7,000 HKD ($895 US) funding target. Pledge starts at $19 for the “Starter Pack” reward with the device only, and no cables. The cables can be added for $5 each if needed, and there are also bundles for a lower price per unit. Shipping costs are not included, but are estimated to be between $5 and $15, depending on the destination country. Deliveries are scheduled to start by April 2026.
Thanks to TLS for the tip.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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Not sure whether the app and automatic backup option are worth the pledge but hardware wise there are already similar products available with even better specs (100W PD) and added functionalities (m.2 storage, full SD + USB) from “Orico”, see here (no affiliate-link).
These types of links are converted into affiliate links.
i might be misunderstanding but it seems a bit weird to make a link to a viewer suggested product within the comments be an affiliate link for your own company, given you did not do the research to find the device, i understand you want to be paid, but really?
Bring us back the moto mods and modular phones! Maybe a 10 year anniversary edition?
I would see the Pocket Cloud, less in the cloud and integrated in a phone protection shield.
I just want to see phones with built in SD card slots again. Or phones supporting the pcie SD cards the Switch 2 supports would be nice too.
But phone makers seem to love charging a premium for built in storage and companies like Google are obsessed with charging for cloud storage.
For now I will just move files off my phone via wifi or by slapping a type-c thumbdrive on my phones usb port.
How ever, since SBC’s were mentioned in the article, now im trying to remember if any of the SBC’s I own that draw power from their type-c port also support data on that port, I always wanted to use one of my extra SBCs that aint doing anything as a local ethernet file server…
it would be neat if there were something like this with a built-in DAC and headphone output, so you could store a library of FLACs and connect your favorite monitors. kind of like a makeshift iPod where the phone serves as the file browser.
“Pocket Cloud”.. How is this a cloud device? It looks more like an external storage device.
..unless we’re calling any storage device “cloud” now.
Big question for all this liberal California startups!!!!!! Why they come w something what is already on market, and even w better version?????????? They reinvented lightb!!!!!!
I would want to have a SSD enclosure with a battery and wifi, that allows to use it as complementary storage for multiple phones, with an internal basic user / root folder management.