14 DAY TRIAL // Although some people might consider fake crocodile or alligator skin somewhat of a kitschy accessory, others simply can't have enough of it, and that's exactly the reason why Japanese company Donya has just released two new external HDD enclosures that combine this particular design characteristic with the very high data transfer speeds enabled by the USB 3.0 (SuperSpeed) interface.
The two products in question are the DN-STHD3035SA and DN-STHD3025SA01 models, both of which share the same external finishing (a combination of the aforementioned alligator skin and aluminum), while allowing users to opt for the amount of storage they see fit (no HDD included in the sales package).
The first croc-style HDD enclosure we've mentioned, the DN-STHD3035SA, is designed to work with 3.5-inch HDDs, enabling data transfer rates of up to 5Gbps when connected to a computer featuring a suitable USB 3.0 port and running Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7.
Since it's designed to work with larger HDDs, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the DN-STHD3035SA is also the larger of the two, measuring 189x131x36.5mm and weighing around 425 grams.
The second enclosure model, the DN-STHD3025SA01, is designed specifically to work with 9.5mm thick 2.5-inch SATA SSD hard drives, and for this reason, it's slightly smaller, measuring 131x90x17mm and weighing around 145 grams.
Unfortunately, Donya has not provided any details regarding the maximum HDD supported size, but they do provide the pricing for the two enclosures, the DN-STHD3035SA selling for around 2,999 Yen (just 35 US dollars), while the DN-STHD3025SA0 has an estimated retail price of around 2,499 Yen (roughly 29 US dollars).
Although they're really cheap (for USB 3.0 enclosures, that is), we can't help but wonder who exactly is going to purchase these things, although the idea of stripping them bare of that fake croc finishing and just enjoying the high data transfer rates is quite an interesting one.