I'm a big fan on the iODD-2531 virtual HDD/ODD. When I discovered the iODD mini's crowd-funding site long after the deadline, I kept hoping it would eventually be made. It was: ordered Sept.20, ETA Oct.18-Nov.4, delivered Oct.17 (USA).
The well-packaged box included some nice iODD-branded extras: An 18-inch USB 3.0 cable, a carrying sleeve, and a hard-shell case. (First photo shows contents, though I added the deck of cards and Zalman HDD for size comparison.) The Quick Guide and Error/Troubleshooting leaflets are understandable and helpful.
The iODD mini itself is slightly smaller than an iPod Mini and much lighter: Device is 31.8 grams while USB cord is 21 g, sleeve is 8 g, and case is 45 g. Unfortunately, device seems about a millimeter too tall to fit into an Altoids tin.
The iODD mini initializes quickly when plugged in. I was able to boot old BIOS-based PCs and new UEFI systems with ease. I didn't measure run benchmarks or test encryption, but on-the-fly changes to write protection and choice of mounted ISO worked well. Navigation is pretty intuitive with the keypad, but I had some frustration with 6 key (right arrow) used to browse subfolders also causing ISOs to mount or unmount. The UI is enhanced by having some actions triggered by a "long press" of certain keys. For example, hold the number 9 key a few seconds to safely unplug the device. Buttons have a decent tactile and audible click.
Main Menu includes Mode setting, USB Control, Information, Setting, Encryption, and Language. (English, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Russian are the available languages.) Screen brightness has 25 different levels (1,2,3,4,...15,18,21,24,...70,80,90,100) with the default being 50%. There is also a Standby time. It's disabled by default, but it supports durations of 1, 15, 30, 60, and 180 minutes. However, the screen appears to always remains lit regardless of standby/sleep status.
One surprise is that the 128x160 LCD is in color. The proportional font means you can see around 16 characters in a file name. You can press the 5 key "(i)" in order to see the full file name and size; unfortunately, this doesn't work on the mounted ISO itself. Nested folders seem to work well, and you can refresh the listing shortly after you upload new ISOs to the device. Folders are listed before files, and the sort order is case-sensitive which means A-Z would come before a-z.
There is a status LED below the keypad. It seems to be white if connected to Full-Speed or High-Speed USB and bright blue if connected to Super-Speed USB. I might color over the LED with a Sharpie because I currently think the blue LED is too bright.
Other notes: USB drive type can be easily toggled between fixed disk and removable disk. The guide said the SSD is shipped uninitialized, but mine had an NTFS-formatted basic (MBR) partition that contained a 20 MB file named ioddtestfile.bin consisting entirely of null bytes. Guide says the 1-year warranty for the IODD MINI Body "is for the United States only." Opening the device voids the warranty.
I ordered the cheapest (256 MB) model. A sticker on the box says "M.2 NGFF SSD 42mm" included, so I *presume* this means that the SSD isn't soldered and could be replaced by a higher-capacity SATA M.2 2242 SSD. I didn't want to void my warranty to find out, though. The S.M.A.R.T. menu says the "HDD" Model is MST1000-256. Guide says Trim/UAS isn't supported....
Overall, I'm very satisfied with my purchase. I look forward to testing out more features, though I don't plan on using encryption.
I docked the rating one star due to the overly bright status LED, the warranty coverage, the ASCII file sorting, and some awkardness accidentally unmounting ISOs; but these are minor deductions from an otherwise excellent and one-of-a-kind product.