Flash drives used to be a thing of the past, with the invent of blue tooth transfer and cloud storage on mobile devices there really wasn’t a need for them anymore. Government agencies stopped using them due to security threats, and they really weren’t being used in the public market. Ten plus years ago you would see everyone from corporate business to tech junkies carrying flash drives. Flash forward to today and flash drives are making a comeback. Mobile flash drives are pretty new but the technology is there and it is amazing. That is what we have today, the Kingston DataTraveler microDuo 3.0, a USB flash drive for both your computer and your Android smartphone.
The smartphones of today although amazingly fast and sporting some amazing Quad HD displays are mostly coming stock with about 16GB of storage. Most of these devices do not come with removable storage options either, so you are stuck with 16GB the entire time you own the device. If you use your mobile phone as much as we at Land of Droid do, you quickly realize that photos, movies and apps take up that space fairly quick. Enter the Kingston DataTraveler microDuo 3.0, with its tiny size and awesome capabilities, you no longer have to worry about storage space again. On one side it sports the full-sized USB connection, which connects just like your normal USB flash drive when connected to your computer. The other side has a plastic cover protecting the unit’s microUSB connection which connects to your mobile device just like your normal charging cable as long as you have Android 4.0+ with USB OTG support. Once you connect the Kingston DataTraveler microDuo it is recognized by your device as external storage – where you can use whichever file manager you have installed and swap/copy data from your Android smartphone to the USB device.
Hey Jeff, with these connections will it charge my device as well? Well, unfortunately it won’t charge your device while both connections are in use which is a bummer, however the amount of uses this device has outweigh that small negative. The Kingston DataTraveler microDuo is available in three sizes currently, 16Gb, 32GB, and 64GB. The 64GB model appears a little pricey but depending on your storage needs you can find a great price for an amazing little device.
In my two weeks of use this little device has been a true performer, with no issues at all. Although I received the 64GB model, upon inspection there was really only 58GB available after connection which still isn’t bad. The website lists the OTG and compatible devices for the device, which funny enough didn’t list my LG G2 VS980 as compatible but worked amazingly when used. Transferring photos and videos to the device was a breeze, and pulling them onto my laptop from the device worked exactly as a USB flash drive should. This is not a HAVE TO HAVE item, rather a handy item to have in a pinch if you need storage. With my job as an accident investigator, the ability to pull photos immediately on scene without having to sync to Dropbox or anything is amazing. I can easily take 200+ photos on one accident and transfer them over instantly. I played around with downloading movies onto my laptop and then putting them on the USB device. This is hands down my favorite part, I can store up to 58GB of movies on the device and carry it on my key chain. Then when the mood strikes, just plug it in and play the movie from the flash drive streaming to my Chromecast. For the Android photographer traveling or doing an event taking photos, the Kingston DataTraveler microDuo is a definite life saver. You don’t want to run out of room while snapping away at your event, so carry this baby and you are all set to keep snapping away.
Kingston DataTraveler microDuo 3.0 Flash drives used to be a thing of the past, with the invent of blue tooth transfer and cloud storage on mobile devices there really wasn't a need for them anymore.
