The phrase "a sort of device" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when describing something that functions similarly to a device but may not fit the exact definition of one.
Example: "The new gadget is a sort of device that helps users track their fitness goals."
Alternatives: "a type of device" or "a kind of device".
For $500, you can score a Canon PowerShot TX1, a sort-of hybrid device that's compact and records HD video and takes 7.1MP photos.
Inside a fibroblast, on the end of each of its chromosomes, there is a telomere, which researchers propose is a sort of timing device.
But Bitcoin XT identifies each newly mined block with a version number that acts as a sort of polling device; those miners whose blocks are signed by XT are thereby signalling their approval of increasing the block size.
It's fitting, then, that the track would now be used as a sort of flotation device, allowing celebrities and civilians alike who would hardly describe themselves as musically inclined to drop their guard and drop a lighthearted verse.
The habit of not seeing is for his characters a sort of narrative device, an evasion of self-awareness that allows them to sustain their stories of themselves; the very syntax of their speech carries them ever farther from a real understanding of their own emotions.
Sam Popkin, a professor of political science at the University of California, calls it "gut rationality" -- a sort of homing device that allows the public to quickly combine its bedrock beliefs with a smattering of new information and make, on the whole, reasoned decisions.
Denon's DVD-2930CI is a sort of transitional device, a bridge from the old format to the new.
The Nexus brand has always been a sort of geek device, targeting Android's core audience rather than the general consumer.
I also believe - though cannot prove - that Switzerland may have produced a few nuclear warheads in the early 1960s and currently keeps them in one of its secret mountain forts as a sort of doomsday device.
That makes Microsoft Mesh a sort of master-device manager that instantaneously syncs data and applications between devices recognizing the limitations of each gizmo and also monitors device health and storage capacity.
