[EXCLUSIVE]: How Lexar made Muse, the world’s thinnest portable SSD that looks like a metal card

For decades, Lexar has been one of the most reliable names in memory and storage. From the era of megabyte-class storage cards and picture card drives to industry-first high-capacity cards, NVMe drives, and a stainless steel SD card as recently as 2024, the company has seen — and done — it all. Lexar’s legacy has been a mainstay in the camera enthusiast community for years, and it’s easy to see the brand’s logo in a professional’s kit.

So, it was only poetic that for its 30th anniversary, Lexar created something special. And this time around, that something special was targeted at smartphones, the device that has quickly become the camera of choice for the entire world. That reveal came at IFA 2026, where Lexar launched Muse, the world’s thinnest SSD. It’s stunningly sleek and almost looks like a metallic card. It’s so thin that there’s not even a USB-C port, and it attaches magnetically to the back of your phone.

Apart from the design, there is plenty of intrigue around this product. How does the PogoPin-to-USB-C magnetic connection work? What about the thermal load? Is there a performance hit attached to the thin engineering goals? After all, the waistline of Lexar’s Muse SSD is just one millimeter across (3.8 mm at its thickest point). So, I took these questions to Lexar and unearthed some of its mysteries.

I was most concerned about heating, especially with such a tightly packed metal chassis attached to a smartphone, which itself gets hot when recording long-form videos. Lexar tells me that instead of going for the usual heat sink design, the Muse adopts a single-sided component layout paired with an in-house IC architecture and thermal design. When it’s attached to a phone, the heat-generating components face away from the phone’s rear shell.

Heat, of course, is unavoidable, and with it comes the risk of a performance drop. Lexar tells me that the Muse comes equipped with low-power, high-density NAND, which minimizes the heat produced while capturing high-bitrate videos. The metal chassis itself, meanwhile, acts as a passive heat spreader.

The company goes as far as claiming that the Muse SSD has been designed to maintain peak performance without taking any thermal hits. To keep the size in check, Lexar says it picked high-density components that take up minimal space, while the single-sided PCB design ensures that the device stays as thin as possible.

I was also somewhat worried about the stability of the spring-loaded pogo pins, because they are pretty susceptible to movement. Lexar assures me that the gold-plated pogo pin contacts on the Muse SSD maintain high signal integrity at 10Gbps. Furthermore, the magnetic attachment is strong enough to align precisely with the connectors, so the connection always stays stable during data transfers.

Since it’s an all-metal device, corrosion is always a concern. Lexar says it performed salt spray testing, high-humidity evaluation, and 10,000 mating (plugging and unplugging) cycles to ensure that the Muse can stand the test of time. For now, the slim SSD is only available in 512GB and 1TB storage options, but Lexar says a 2TB model is currently under validation. It’s technically feasible to make, but the company says it will assess market demand before launching it.

The full interview of Digital Trends’ conversation with Lexar is as follows:

Thin drives attached directly to the back of an iPhone sit right against the rear battery/logic board assembly, which is itself an active heat source. How did you decouple the phone’s thermal load from the SSD to prevent mutual overheating during extended shoots?

Muse uses a single-sided component layout on the PCB and Lexar’s unique thermal control design, enabled by its highly integrated controller architecture, rather than a traditional standalone heatsink. The all-metal unibody enclosure helps efficiently spread and dissipate heat across the drive. When attached to a smartphone, the primary heat-generating components face away from the phone, helping minimize thermal interaction between the SSD and the device during sustained workloads such as high-bitrate video recording.

Did achieving sustained write speeds near 1,000 MB/s require a custom dynamic throttling profile, or is the aluminum shell acting as the entire passive thermal dissipation surface? 

Muse combines low-power, high-density NAND that helps reduce heat generation, an all-metal chassis that acts as a passive heat spreader, and firmware-level thermal management.

The firmware continuously monitors temperatures and dynamically adjusts performance when necessary. Under normal operating conditions, including sustained 4K/120fps ProRes recording, Muse is designed to maintain performance without triggering thermal throttling. Thermal protection is intended primarily for unusually high-temperature or extreme operating conditions.

Fitting controller silicon, power management ICs, and high-density NAND into a card-thin profile typically forces trade-offs. What specific packaging technique enabled Lexar to drop below the typical 7–10 mm portable drive enclosures? 

Muse’s ultra-thin profile comes from a highly optimized component and mechanical architecture, not a single packaging technique. We carefully selected low-profile, high-density components and combined them with a single-sided PCB layout to significantly reduce the required internal vertical space. This is complemented by a thin-wall, high-strength metal enclosure and our compact Pogo Pin-based interface, allowing Muse to achieve its ultra-thin form factor without relying on the internal structure and connector space typical of conventional portable SSDs.

High-speed data connections over spring-loaded pogo pins are notorious for sensitivity to movement. How did the engineering team ensure stable 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 signal integrity across the SnapLink magnetic interface during active handheld shooting? 

SnapLink was engineered for both electrical and mechanical stability. Gold-plated Pogo Pin contacts and optimized high-speed signal path help maintain signal integrity for the 10Gbps USB connection, while the strong magnetic attachment and precision alignment design help keep the connection securely positioned during active handheld shooting.

What wear-and-tear testing was performed on the spring pins and contact pads against pocket debris, pocket lint, and oxidation over long-term creator workflows? 

For long-term reliability, SnapLink undergoes extensive mechanical and environmental durability testing, including more than 10,000 mating cycles, salt-spray testing, and high-temperature/high-humidity testing. The contacts are also tested against common real-world contaminants such as skin oils, sweat, moisture, dust, metal particles, and textile fibers to help ensure reliable performance over extended use.

The drive is launching in 512GB and 1TB trims. Was 2TB omitted at launch strictly due to physical NAND package thickness constraints, and is higher capacity on the horizon as higher-layer 3D NAND densities scale? 

The initial 512GB and 1TB capacities were not driven by physical NAND thickness limitations. A 2TB configuration is technically feasible and currently under validation. We’ll evaluate higher-capacity options based on validation results, market demand, and our future product roadmap.