Best USB Flash Drives

USB flash drives are made to connect to PCs and laptops as smartphones and tablets do not usually feature bulky USB ports. To get the files from a flash drive to your mobile gadget, you usually need a computer to use as an intermediate. And if you have a computer at hand, why open files on the smaller phone display? But there are times when there is no laptop at hand, or using one is simply inconvenient and you need to show photos or videos to your friends, for example. For situations like this some time ago SanDisk presented their Connect Wireless Stick. This is a USB 2.0 flash drive that can also connect to up to 3 gadgets at a time wirelessly. A tiny built-in battery will provide up to four and a half hours of wireless operation, and the drive can be set to automatically backup the files on your devices. The drive is offered in 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, and 200GB storage capacity.

While USB flash drives are used with computers, digital cameras may need SD cards to store files. If you still do not have one, we can help you make a choice.

The selection of USB drives on the market often forces the manufacturers to go out of their way and create devices that catch your eye when you simply pass by. When there are tons of options with similar capabilities, design might be that one thing that tips the balance. Some companies take it to the extreme. Swiss jewelry company La Maison Shawish offers its clients a truly luxurious USB flash drive designed by the company founder Mohamed Shawesh. The drive casing looks like a mushroom with a golden stem and a cap covered with diamonds and rubies/sapphires/emeralds. Open the cap and you will find a USB plug there. The storage capacity here is only 32GB but, sincerely, storage is hardly the thing that will bother you when you can pay up to $37,000 for a flash drive.

Netbooks and Ultrabooks, and recently some laptops, have fewer USB ports that we might find necessary. When the need to switch between the drives and devices all the time starts to set you on edge, it is time to consider a USB hub.

One may think that high levels of physical protection would make a flash drive bulky and heavy, which is pretty inconvenient in a device created with a sole purpose of portability. But Samsung BAR USB 3.0 Flash Drive is really lightweight, stylish and pleasant to touch. Ultrasmooth casing with laser pattern looks very hi-tech, and a large hole at the end is particularly convenient if you wish to use a flash drive as a keyfob or a phone strap. It can even hang on your bag or backpack, tied nicely. Having bought this USB flash drive, you get all in one, a reliable protection from damage, a stylish accessory, a lot of storage space for your data, and means to never lose it! A very practical choice, we believe. Good job, Samsung!

Remember the times when you had to struggle to squeeze some music and pictures into your phone memory? Even now, with larger storage capacities, we sometimes find it lacking (after all, we now want movies to watch on the go). Today's tech world offers a way to connect a USB flash drive to your mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. An OTG (On-The-Go) connector has a USB port at one end and a miniUSB or a microUSB at the other. It is a moderately convenient option. Or you could purchase a microSD card and set it in your gadget as a constant storage. The choice is all yours.

It happens all the time. The cap that protects a USB plug falls off and gets lost exposing the most important part of the flash drive to the dust and dirt of our environment. Or we can drop the drive into a backpack and then put something on it; the plug will bend under the weight. This results in malfunctioning and decreases the lifespan of your gadget. SanDisk solved this problem in Cruzer. The plug is not covered by the cap here, instead, it is retractable; with an economic motion, you can make it slide inside under the casing protection. No crumbs, no dust, no bending. This USB flash drive might not be the fastest option on the market but it is just perfect for students who carry their books and assignments together with their electronic copies on a flash drive. Reliable, efficient, comfortable.

Student or working adult, if you have a laptop it is definitely a necessity to have a special bag or a backpack with a variety of pockets to neatly organize all your gadgets and accessories. Never lose track of where all your things are.

The original iXpand Drive app (available in AppStore) can be customized to automatically backup any data on your iPad and iPhone every time you connect the drive to a gadget. This way, you won’t need to manually select every photo and video to copy. You simply connect the flash drive and it does all the work without bothering you.It is worth special mentioning that iXpand USB/Lightning Flash Drive incorporates an encryption software for you to share your data safely. Confidential information will stay confidential.You think that’s all? SanDisk disagrees. Here’s one more feature.With iXpand, you now can turn on the music and videos stored on a drive just like that, without having to transfer them to your iPhone or iPad. Save .wmv, .avi, .mkv, .mp4, .mov files on the drive and then play them right from there. Now this is some multifunctionality!

There are still people and organizations all over the world that use optical discs but fewer and fewer laptops and desktop computers that feature an optical drive. When it is critical for you to record some data onto an optical disc but your PC is a new one (or an old one but the drive is dead), here is a solution — an external CD/DVD drive will take up pretty little space near your computer and it can be connected via the same USB port you use for your flash drives.