Firefly PocketCloud Mobile Docking Station NAS Revealed (StationPC)

Firefly Pocket Cloud Mobile NAS Docking Station

Mobile NAS solutions have become somewhat vogue in the last year or so. Network Attached Storage solutions (NAS) have become increasingly popular as a cost-effective and storage-desirable alternative to cloud services, but once you step outside of the local area network of your chosen NAS solution, certain limitations present themselves. The biggest of which is to do with the speed of your backups. Backing up your PCs and phones over your own local network is great, but once you are offsite and far away, you are at the behest of your internet speeds and at the overhead of backing up multiple devices remotely. This is the issue that the Pocket Cloud mobile NAS system is hoping to improve against and overcome. Formed of two core parts, the Pocket Cloud NAS is formed of a handheld, battery-powered NAS drive that is remotely accessible from all the devices around it as a targeted backup. Then, when you get back to your desktop, you can slot the Pocket Cloud into the accompanying docking station, and from there it will backup all the data to its base station. From there, you can back up to the cloud, another NAS, or a USB drive. The Pocket Cloud hopes to hit Kickstarter at the end of March 2025, so let’s take a moment and discuss everything we know about it!

Firefly Station PC Mobile NAS Hardware & Design

The design of the Personal Cloud Drive is…well… it looks unusual. The actual NAS portion of the device is in a portable fan-assisted box with its own battery and about the same size and weight as two modern mobile phones. The silver plastic with matte metal design looks a little dated, and the shape (when it is in the dock) looks a little ‘toaster-like’, but aside from that, it’s a very portable device.

Interestingly, the primary storage unit portion of the device has its own LCD panel, as well as the means to cycle through options and action them directly from the system without using a mobile client app (though there is/will be one available apparently). This panel allows you to check the status of sync, backup operations, system configuration, and more. It’s a small detail and it uses a rather old-school wheel selection process, but it works a treat and makes a lot of sense!

The LCD screen is clear, the selection process simple and intuitive, and the presentation feels very nice. I was unable to fully test the mobile application control/management of the Pocket Cloud, so was unable to confirm how intuitive or responsive it is, but the LCD manual on-system panel was very responsive and allowed me quick and easy control. It also allows the user to action 1-click backups of devices connected via the storage inputs.

The portable box portion of the system features several ports and connections. First off, I was surprised to find an SD Card slot. The CES representative was unable to confirm the speed/revision, but it was nevertheless very interesting to see, as SD card backup slots have become increasingly rare on NAS devices in recent years and their access on a mobile NAS to allow photographers/videographers to back up their camera work on the fly between shoots ‘camera cable-free’ will be hugely appealing.

Alongside the SD Card slot there is both a USB A and a USB C Port, both at 5Gb/s speed. These both work as inputs to send data to the system. There is still no indication of how the 1-touch backup is set up, or how the client applications that this device will arrive with manage USB-connected drives (outside of the 1-touch button via the LCD automatically). It was not made clear during the demonstration at CES about whether one of the ports is specifically used to interface with the storage box unit, or even as an alternate means to charge the battery.

The storage unit (with the PC Pocket logo – which looks a little old-fashioned) features a 6400mAh battery, which is a decent amount of power to keep a modest device like this going. Unfortunately, the representative on the stand was unable to confirm how long this battery pack would allow the device to run between charges. However, as an example, the now-released portable NAS zSpace UnifyDrive UT2 runs on an ARM processor with 8GB memory and can run for around 2 hours max (realistically 1 hour of constantly processing) with their 2200mAh battery. The feature set of this personal portable NAS will obviously hugely impact how long that battery will last, but it’s still a decent-sized battery to arrive with. Additionally, the battery is in a removable slot inside the main storage model and can be swapped out for another battery if needed on long trips.

The storage box features an m.2 slot that supports up to 8TB of M.2 2280 NVMe storage. It is a shame that this is a single slot, as opposed to dual storage bays (as that would allow for RAID 1 support and therefore a safety net if one of the drives fails whilst the storage box unit is away from the docking station), but it is still good to know that the storage of this system is faster and more power-efficient NVMe, rather than slower SATA storage.

The CPU inside the main storage box unit is now confirmed, and is likely to be extremely modest. That said, the system does feature an internally silent cooling fan and has vents built into either side of the casing. Given the single M.2 NVMe slot inside and the modest hardware here, this is nonetheless an impressive bit of temperature provisioning for such a modest scaled device.

Now, let’s discuss the main ‘schtick’ of this device – the docking mechanic. The whole idea of this system is that you take the storage model with you ‘on the go’ and back up to the device over the physical connections (there was no confirmation or clarity on whether the storage unit had its own WiFi/Bluetooth connection – so I can only assume for now that the answer is no), you then simply connect the storage unit into the docking station and it begins backing up the docking station.

We have seen similar architecture to this (without the docking mechanic) to older devices, however, the difference here is the battery-powered storage box that allows you to back up all your devices to it when off-site, then just dropping that into the docking station when you get back home or the office. The speed and methodology behind the transfer are still yet to be confirmed (as is the security provision of the data once it is on the docking station, i.e. encryption as it transfers? Password authentication to access it?) but it is connected via a 14-pin connector between the storage box and the docking station.

Turning the docking station over reveals that it also has its own m.2 NVMe storage slot (located under a removable heatsink panel that has its own hex screwdriver built into its cover). This supports a 2280 m.2 NVMe, which is great news, but once again – I do wish this was at least a 2-bay docking station, as that would allow for the RAID safety net in the event of a dead SSD down the road – and the storage box is primarily designed for periodic backups, which will result in the data on the portable unit not really acting as a ‘backup’, but more as a data transportation point towards the dock later. Nevertheless, it is good that this docking station has its own storage.

The bottom corner of the storage box features three individual connections. There is a USB A port that I am told allows you to back up the contents of the docking station to an external drive, but it was not clear if this can also be used as a further backup path to allow backups to be conducted similarly to the removable storage box, but on the docking station.

The USB-C port is the power input for the device and it would appear that the device runs off domestically available USB mains power, though the actual USB power requirements were not confirmed.

Alongside the USB-C power port is the 2.5GbE network connection. This is good to see, as that will allow for greater network connectivity for sharing the system’s content. I am not clear on the extent to which the system can be accessed via this connection (the software that is used was shown in light media materials, but not actual usable demonstration portals at the CES 2025 show), but at least it is not restricted to a single 1GbE port, as found on most modest storage boxes comparable to this one. That said, 2.5GbE will still bottleneck a lot of the performance of even the most affordable M.2 NVMe – without knowing more about the CPU system hardware architecture, it’s not possible to know the extent to which this network connectivity can be used. The representative on stand highlighted that the contents of the NAS will certainly be accessible over SMB, as well as supporting Google Drive backups, but that was all that was confirmed in my relatively brief meeting.

Firefly Station PC PocketCloud Mobile NAS Release, Price and Concerns

There are still a lot of questions. Is remote access to the docking station of the NAS system possible outside of the local area network? And if so, how is that conducted (i.e. brand relay site point?) and what security measures are in place? Is advanced user authentication and/or encrypted transmission factored in?

The brand tells me that they are intending to launch this system at the end of March 2025 and they will be following the trend of a number of brands and using Kickstarter as their launch platform. Despite the marketing and product promotion advantages that this brings to eastern brands who want to take advantage of the toolset and analytically targeting resources of this platform to launch a new style of product, it will also put some users off who would much rather purchase a device like this at traditional retail. This would seem to be an already NAS/server-focused manufacturer behind this product, who does not have a huge presence in the U.S/outside of their home region, so I can see the logic behind the choice to use Kickstarter (UGREEN did it, Zspace did it, etc). But until I have hands on the product, I will hold off full judgment/thoughts on this device, as there are still a lot of question marks surrounding its deployment and abilities that need answering. I look forward to discussing more on this in March/April 2025. Learn More about the Firefly StationPC HERE on their website.

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