XPG has announced the XPG Vault, a “concept” mouse that has a built-in SSD to let you carry around your mouse and storage in one package (via Engadget). While lots of gaming mice have some built-in storage to let you easily carry macros and preferences from computer to computer, and the concept of a mouse doubling as a flash drive has been around for over a decade, XPG is aiming a little higher. It’s promising “to make your gaming libraries conveniently portable,” right from your mouse.
There aren’t many details for the Vault in XPG’s press release, but XPG says the “current prototype can integrate up to 1TB of Solid State memory running at 985MB/s” and connects with USB-C. Given that it’s a wired mouse, that performance seems possible — and it’d imply that you could actually play games stored on the Vault. There’s certainly enough room for a few titles, as long as one of them isn’t Call of Duty.
However, it’s unclear what other levels of storage are available and if it’ll be upgradable (that seems hard to imagine, but it’s easy to wish for). There’s also no data about the SSD, though it’d probably be a safe bet that it’s made by ADATA, the memory and SSD company that owns XPG. The press release also doesn’t include any specs that people serious about mousing will care about, like the Vault’s DPI or sensor. The company’s post does, however, also announce the XPG Alpha mouse, which looks a lot like the Vault. That one will use Pixart’s PAW3335 sensor and will have wireless capabilities at the cost of not having built-in storage.
XPG says that visitors to its CES booth will get a “peek” at the Vault, so it’s always possible we’ll hear more details about it soon — it’d be interesting to know how heavy it is, whether you can actually play games off it, if there’s any difference in responsiveness when you’re using the SSD versus when you’re not, etc. Since The Verge won’t be doing CES in person this year (along with many other companies), we reached out to XPG to see if we could get any more information and will update if we hear back.
Given that this is being billed as a “concept” and “prototype,” it’s possible this is the most we’ll ever hear about this mouse — that’s not exactly uncommon for things announced at CES. But it’s an interesting idea that doesn’t seem completely improbable; even if XPG doesn’t end up making this exact product, it’s possible we could have a future where you walk up to the LAN party with just your mouse, and that gives you access to all your games. You know, when LAN parties are safe to have again.
wazup.