An 80-gram silicone slab stuck to the back of the phone, keeping pace with 4K ProRes. The Lexar ES5 is a magnetic portable SSD, 11mm thick, that sticks to any MagSafe iPhone and records video straight from the Camera app over its USB-C cable.
Lexar sells it in 1TB and 2TB, in one silver liquid-silicone finish. IP65 keeps out dust and water. The shell survives a 3-meter drop, iPhones from the 12 on grip it magnetically, and a metal ring in the box adds the stick to phones and cameras that lack magnets. PetaPixel's Jaron Schneider pegs the internals as a rehoused Armor 700, Lexar's 2024 rugged drive.
Key specs
| Capacities | 1TB, 2TB |
| Size and weight | 85 x 54 x 11 mm, 80 g |
| Rated speed | 2000MB/s read and write over USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 |
| Durability | IP65, 3-meter drop rating, 5-year warranty |
The magnet earns the design. StorageReview's Lyle Smith carried a laptop around with the drive stuck to it and only got it off with real force, and 9to5Mac's Fernando Silva found it held on a bare iPhone, no MagSafe case required.
Lexar's compatibility list runs 4K60 ProRes from the iPhone 15 Pro generation, 4K120 from the 16 Pro, and ProRes RAW from the iPhone 17 Pro. Silva ran the RAW workflow in a May 2026 hands-on and called the ES5 "one of the best examples of how MagSafe and USB-C are opening the door for genuinely useful accessories." The workflow covers the stock Camera app and Blackmagic Camera alike.
The rated speed needs an asterisk, though. Schneider points out that 2000MB/s requires a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 host and Apple has never shipped one, so on an iPhone or a Mac "the ES5 will only ever be able to transfer as fast as 1,000 MB/s." Smith's bench run clocked 1,824MB/s reads on a true Gen 2x2 port, so the silicon delivers and the phone is the ceiling. Half speed still carried Silva's ProRes RAW takes without a hitch, but anyone buying for desktop offloads should treat the box number as theoretical on Apple hardware.
The box covers the small stuff: the USB-C cable doubles as a lanyard, and Lexar's DataShield software adds 256-bit AES encryption.
iPhoners already recording to an external drive get one that rides the phone instead of a pocket. For a video-first iPhone rig, the magnet is the argument.
