The lack of expandable storage has
always been a thorn in the side of iPhone and iPad users, while microSD
cards and even USB-OTG drives are standard features of the Android
landscape. Buyers balk at the massive margins
Apple charges to step up
from the lowest storage option on each of its devices, but often wind up
feeling remorse a year or so down the line when they have to start
deleting photos, cutting back on apps and carrying less music.
SanDisk
is one few companies trying to help users get around this problem. The
iXpand Flash Drive does two major things: it helps you carry more data
around than your iOS device(s) can store, and it helps you copy files to
and from PCs and iOS devices without going through iTunes. Note that it
does not magically add more storage to an iPhone or iPad itself - so
you can't think of it as an iOS equivalent of a USB pen drive. More on how
that works below.
Look and feel
The SanDisk iXpand Flash
Drive is fairly bulky; much larger than the similar Strontium Nitro
iDrive USB 3.0 which we reviewed earlier this year. The first thing
you'll notice about it is the Lightning connector recessed into the
front of the body. It's actually on the end of a flexible rubber stalk
so you can lift it out to plug the drive into your iOS device.
The
iXpand Flash Drive is made of metal, which the company hopes will
appeal to iPhone and iPad buyers. There's a regular full-sized USB
connector under the plastic lid on top, and you can plug the iXpand
Flash Drive into any PC or Mac, though it will block ports on either
side thanks to its width.
The construction quality is top-notch,
with polished metal shining through on the edges much like it would on
current Apple products. There's a tiny activity LED on the right side
but otherwise really not much else to see on the device itself. It's
heavy enough that you'll feel it in a pocket, but not so much that it
will make any difference when tossed in a bag.
SanDisk told us at
the device's launch that the flexible stalk design was chosen so that
iPhones and iPads wouldn't have to be removed from cases with narrow
Lightning port openings. While we found that this was true and
convenient in one way, it results in the iXpand Flash Drive hanging out
the bottom and at an angle. This made for some very awkward gymnastics
when trying to hold our test devices, and we weren't able to lay them
flat on any surface or prop them up either. On the whole, we would have
preferred a smaller, less awkward design.
Specifications and software
One
of the reasons for the iXpand Flash Drive's bulk is that it has a
battery, and it will simply not work if it runs out. Apple does not
allow accessories to drain power from an iPhone or iPad's Lightning
port, so the drive will only charge when plugged in to a PC (or you'll
need to use a wall charger). This is important to know because you might
not notice it at all when regularly shuffling between PCs and iOS
devices, but you could run out if you use it on an iOS device
exclusively for a long time, such as if you use it only to back up
photos and videos on a long trip. You'll want to keep an eye on the
activity LED which will turn red when you need to charge the drive.
The
iXpand Flash Drive is available in capacities ranging from 16GB to
128GB. It will work with any PC running at least Windows Vista and any
Mac with OS X v10.6 and above. You'll also need at least iOS 7.1 on your
Lightning-equipped iOS device. On plugging it in to any iOS device for
the first time, it will trigger a prompt taking you to the App Store to
download SanDisk's iXpand app. The company also provides a security
program for Windows and OS X on the drive itself.
The iXpand app
is the only way to get to anything stored on the drive. The biggest
limitation Apple enforces is that no other app is even aware when it's
plugged in. You thus cannot use it to bump up your iPhone or iPad's
storage capacity. You can transfer photos from your Camera Roll to the
iXpand Flash drive but you can't permanently have more space. You can
play music and videos through the app but you can't add those files to
the iOS Music and Video players.
The iXpand Flash Drive gives you
an easy but inelegant way of quickly copying media to your device so
you can enjoy it later. Just copy files on to if from a PC - no iTunes,
no typing IP addresses into Web browsers. You can then either play them
directly off the drive or copy files over to your iOS device for easier
access. If you do that, they live only within the iXpand app unless you
make further copies of them in other supported apps using the iOS 'Open
In...' option. This will let you do some things like send a PDF to
iBooks, or a video to Dropbox.
Thankfully, the iXpand app is
really well laid out. You can browse through the contents of the drive (in a list view or grid of thumbnails)
and launch any supported file, which includes audio and video formats
that iOS does not support through the native Music and Video apps as
well as PDFs and common document filetypes. Files that aren't recognised
can be launched in external apps. There's a 'Now Playing' panel
that lets you control music while doing other things.
Performance
One
major shortcoming of the SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive is that it works on
a PC at USB 2.0 speed. The Strontium alternative we tested recently was
a USB 3.0 drive and the difference is enormous. If you want to grab
files or make backups quickly, this will be a major irritant.
On
our desktop test bench, the iXpand Flash Drive achieved 11.83Mbps and
12.6Mbps sequential reads and writes respectively. Random reads and
writes came in at 11.81Mbps and 11.64Mbps, which is not too bad. We also
tested the drive with an iPhone 5c and a fourth-gen iPad both running
iOS 8.3, and had no problems with the drive being recognised.
The
app has a few unnecessary animations that seem to add delays to
navigation and some common functions. It takes a long time to display your device's photos if you have a lot of them. It also crashed randomly on one or
two occasions, but was otherwise very polished and easy to use.
Thankfully
the app makes it very easy to check the battery charge level and
remaining free capacity of the iXpand Flash Drive. We never managed to
drain the battery enough to cause alarm, but that's because we had it
plugged in to PCs fairly often.
Verdict
There definitely is
a niche for products like the SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive. If you
regularly find yourself running out of space, this might help solve some
of your problems. However, it's actually more useful when used as a
tool to back up photos and just get files onto an iOS device quickly and
easily.
With prices ranging from Rs. 4,490 for 16GB to Rs.
11,490 for 128GB, an iXpand Flash Drive would be well over ten times as
expensive as a USB OTG drive of equivalent capacity. The street pricing is at par with that of the Strontium Nitro iDrive, and while it is a lot bulkier and slower, the app is far, far better.
If at all possible, it would make more
sense to just go with a higher device
capacity at the time of purchase. If it's too late, you also have the option of buying a highly capable
Android phone and a microSD card for the same or less. You'll have to
decide whether the convenience is worth this much money to you.
Price (MRP): Rs. 4,490 (16GB); Rs. 5,990 (32GB); Rs. 7,990 (64GB); Rs. 11,490 (128GB)
Pros- Well-designed app
- Portable
- Convenient for file transfers
Cons
- Requires charging
- Limited to USB 2.0 transfer speed
- Awkward to handle an iPhone or iPad when plugged in
Ratings (Out of 5)- Design: 3.5
- Performance: 3
- Value for Money: 3
- Overall: 3