If you’re anything like me, you’ve dropped a gadget or two in your day. With everything happening in slow motion, you hope that your cell phone or PDA only suffers surface wounds, with the precious innards remaining unscathed. Even then, it’s frustrating when you see those unsightly scratches and chips, so you head out and buy all those protective cases and whatnot, making your ultra-portable device, a little bulkier and a whole lot more scratch resistant.

Plextor knows all about you. They know you drop things, so that’s why they’ve wrapped up the PX-SP in a cushy silicone skin. They can literally take a licking and keep on ticking, to borrow an ancient catchphrase. If that wasn’t protection enough, they come packaged in with a little black carrying case, which I guess is designed to protect your silicone case.

On the technical side, they’re nothing special. No need for an external power source, because it draws its juice from USB 2.0. The 80GB version will run you £100 ($174), with the 120GB model going for £155 ($270). Look for the Plextor PX-SP to drop (no pun intended) next month.