twister6
Android Expert
This is a review of SanDisk Dual USB OTG 64GB drive. SanDisk Ultra Dual USB Drive - Android Phone File Transfer to PC available on Amazon: Amazon.com: SanDisk Ultra 64GB Micro USB 2.0 OTG Flash Drive For Android Smartphone/Tablet With App- SDDD-064G-G46: Computers & Accessories
How many times have you been in a situation where you needed to move files between your laptop/PC and smartphone/tablet and wanted a simple solution without cables? Or how about sharing pictures or video clips from your phone without emailing or putting them on a cloud drive? Or perhaps you would like to watch a movie or listen to a music on your phone/tablet but don't have enough empty space or just don't want to copy all the files to internal storage? I can go on with a lot of different scenarios, but prefer to stop now because SanDisk came up with a perfect solution for all of these needs - a dual usb drive with OTG support. Here is what I found.
USB thumb drive is still one of the most efficient and easiest ways to store and to transfer files between computers. You don't need any extra cable, you don't need any extra software, nothing needs to be configured since it's a plug'n'play, and it's very compact and easy to carry in a pocket. Today with smartphones and tablets becoming an essential part of our life, it's no longer about just transferring files between computer but also your phone. While a typical usb stick has a standard full size male USB connector, smartphones and tablets use micro-USB connector and need specific OTG wiring to access that connector (if your phone/tablet supports it).
A various solutions available with OTG wired connectors or short patch OTG cables where you can attach usb stick, but we are talking about 2 separate pieces to carry around. To bridge this gap, Sandisk came up with a very simple solution of a small USB thumb drive in various capacities (up to 64GB) where one side has a standard full size USB connector for your PC or laptop and the other side has micro-USB connector with OTG support. In theory you can use it as a regular 64GB thumb drive (for $35, I wouldn't even think twice and get the largest capacity). But when you need to copy files to your smartphone or just mount it as an external drive to your phone or tablet, you just use the other connector side.
The construction of this drive is very sturdy, and it has 2 sliding protection caps for each connector side. It's a great design where you don't have any removable parts to worry about loosing, just slide them in to expose the connector side. Also, the way it's designed you can't have both connectors fully open at the same time preventing a confusion of having USB and OTG micro-usb connected simultaneously. The drive itself is about 1.5" in length and even has a little plastic tab to loop a string so you can attach it to lanyard or put on a keychain.
Everything looks and functions great, but I do have a warning for those with a rugged phone/tablet case where micro-usb side might not fit unless you take the case off. I had no issues with any of my Nexus tablets or Galaxy S5, but did ran into a problem with my UAG case on Note 2 where micro-usb opening was a bit too narrow and I had to take the case off to use this drive. Perhaps in a future Sandisk can make micro-usb connector a little bit longer. Also, as a general comment, some of the phones and tablets don't recognize exFAT default format of this dual USB stick, so you might have to reformat it in FAT32 (look up free "guiformat" util).
Overall, without a single doubt in my mind this is a MUST HAVE gadget for anybody with a smartphone, no matter how much internal storage you have, even with Sandisk 128GB micro-sd card! Copying files from your phone/tablet when you are traveling and don't have immediate access to your laptop or usb/micro-usb cable handy - could be a hassle. Sandisk dual USB drive solves this problem with a very robust solution in a form of a tiny usb drive with both usb and micro-usb connectors and internal storage of 64GB. For $35 it's definitely a bargain!
Here are the pictures.
How many times have you been in a situation where you needed to move files between your laptop/PC and smartphone/tablet and wanted a simple solution without cables? Or how about sharing pictures or video clips from your phone without emailing or putting them on a cloud drive? Or perhaps you would like to watch a movie or listen to a music on your phone/tablet but don't have enough empty space or just don't want to copy all the files to internal storage? I can go on with a lot of different scenarios, but prefer to stop now because SanDisk came up with a perfect solution for all of these needs - a dual usb drive with OTG support. Here is what I found.
USB thumb drive is still one of the most efficient and easiest ways to store and to transfer files between computers. You don't need any extra cable, you don't need any extra software, nothing needs to be configured since it's a plug'n'play, and it's very compact and easy to carry in a pocket. Today with smartphones and tablets becoming an essential part of our life, it's no longer about just transferring files between computer but also your phone. While a typical usb stick has a standard full size male USB connector, smartphones and tablets use micro-USB connector and need specific OTG wiring to access that connector (if your phone/tablet supports it).
A various solutions available with OTG wired connectors or short patch OTG cables where you can attach usb stick, but we are talking about 2 separate pieces to carry around. To bridge this gap, Sandisk came up with a very simple solution of a small USB thumb drive in various capacities (up to 64GB) where one side has a standard full size USB connector for your PC or laptop and the other side has micro-USB connector with OTG support. In theory you can use it as a regular 64GB thumb drive (for $35, I wouldn't even think twice and get the largest capacity). But when you need to copy files to your smartphone or just mount it as an external drive to your phone or tablet, you just use the other connector side.
The construction of this drive is very sturdy, and it has 2 sliding protection caps for each connector side. It's a great design where you don't have any removable parts to worry about loosing, just slide them in to expose the connector side. Also, the way it's designed you can't have both connectors fully open at the same time preventing a confusion of having USB and OTG micro-usb connected simultaneously. The drive itself is about 1.5" in length and even has a little plastic tab to loop a string so you can attach it to lanyard or put on a keychain.
Everything looks and functions great, but I do have a warning for those with a rugged phone/tablet case where micro-usb side might not fit unless you take the case off. I had no issues with any of my Nexus tablets or Galaxy S5, but did ran into a problem with my UAG case on Note 2 where micro-usb opening was a bit too narrow and I had to take the case off to use this drive. Perhaps in a future Sandisk can make micro-usb connector a little bit longer. Also, as a general comment, some of the phones and tablets don't recognize exFAT default format of this dual USB stick, so you might have to reformat it in FAT32 (look up free "guiformat" util).
Overall, without a single doubt in my mind this is a MUST HAVE gadget for anybody with a smartphone, no matter how much internal storage you have, even with Sandisk 128GB micro-sd card! Copying files from your phone/tablet when you are traveling and don't have immediate access to your laptop or usb/micro-usb cable handy - could be a hassle. Sandisk dual USB drive solves this problem with a very robust solution in a form of a tiny usb drive with both usb and micro-usb connectors and internal storage of 64GB. For $35 it's definitely a bargain!
Here are the pictures.
