Two things that tend to disturb a lot of iPhone/iPad users, especially those who use a Windows PC would be the fact that first off, they can’t directly get data out of the device without a 3rd party software, and secondly, not having storage expansion capabilities like their Android counterparts and that’s where SanDisk’s iXpand Flash Drive comes in.
The SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive is a simple, compact, and nice-looking USB thumb drive that can enable you automatically back up photos and videos in your gallery. It pretty much has two means of connection, on one end is a USB for your PC while the other end has the lightning connector for the iPhone or iPad.
Design
This flash drive comes in a mix of metal and flexible rubber material which lets you curve the main part of the thumb drive out of the way while using with your iPhone or iPad. The design here was clearly thought out and you barely get an inch to stick out of the iOS device you connect to, making it more appealing to hold than having a lengthy thumb drive stick out of the connector, all thanks to that flexible rubber material.
As far as dimensions, you get 0.67″ x 2.32″ x 0.51″ (L X W X H), and this is definitely small enough to fit to a keychain while on the go as well as giving you the benefit to easily free up space on your iPhone or iPad.
Performance
Before we would head into how the SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive performs, let’s get to see the specs. You are getting a USB 3.0 interface on here, and more so, you can pick this device up in either 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, or even a 256GB capacity stick. The unit used for this review is 128GB capacity.
Performance is pretty much decent, I mean, you get to watch videos directly from the flash drive while on your iPhone. When it comes to file transfer speeds (Read and Write), I ran a few tests with the BlackMagic Disk Speed Test, and below was the result obtained. It definitely gets the job done.
App Use
Setting up the app on your iOS device is quite straight forward, plug in the flash to your iPhone and you’d get a prompt on how to go about the download from the App store.
You get this feature-rich app with a nice looking interface that enables you to backup and transfer files between your smartphone and the flash drive. Also, you could as well connect the iXpand flash to your PC, copy some movies or photos to it and have them play on your iPhone/iPad. Some of the supported video formats include MP4 and MOV files.
Price
The price of the iXpand depends on the amount of storage you need. On their SanDisks official website, you can get the 32GB storage option for $22.99, 64GB for $33.49, 128GB for $45.99 and the 248GB option for $73.99. On Jumia Nigeria though, I found the 32GB variant for N10,500 while the 64GB storage option went for about N18,000.
Verdict
As far as getting a portable solution that gets your through the hassle of limited storage on your iPhone or iPad, this is definitely one of those options to take a look at and it for sure gets the job done.