SanDisk iXpand Mini 128GB

Western Digital-owned SanDisk is a pretty well-known name when it comes to digital memory and storage products such as memory cards and USB flash drives. A little while back, the company launched its iXpand USB flash drive mini in India. Specifically designed to add external storage to Apple’s iOS devices such as iPhones and iPads, the iXpand mini range of flash drives come in 16, 32, 64 and 128GB capacities with price ranging from Rs 2,750 to Rs 7,050. We reviewed the 32GB variant and here’s what we think of it.

Design
With the iXpand Mini, the company has changed the design of the device compared to its predecessor. While the earlier iXpand has a hook-like construction at the end that houses the lightening connector, the iXpand Mini has a simple rectangular body. This design makes it easier for you to carry it in your wallet or pocket, something that might have been a little difficult with the previous version.Overall, we were quite impressed with the new simple yet tasteful design of the iXpand

Performance
The iXpand flash drive requires you to download its companion app, iXpand Drive, on your iOS device for you to use it. Once the app has been installed, you can connect the drive and it will prompt you to open the app. Just make sure that the USB flash drive is formatted with the proper file system.

Although all standard file systems are supported, we recommend using exFAT as it’s compatible with Windows, Linux and Macintosh. We found that there are a lot of benefits of using the iXpand, the most important being the ability free up precious storage space on your Apple device. You can transfer just about anything from the iOS machine to the drive (or back). These include photos, videos and other files from the iOS system.

A neat feature we must talk about is the iXpand’s auto-backup. Via this the users can auto-copy pictures and videos to the flash drive as soon as it is connected to an iPhone or iPad. Over that, encryption is supported. Yes, users can password-protect the data on this drive (adding to the security barrage).

On our test bench the SanDisk iXpand did well. We were able to transfer a 900 MB file from the Apple iPhone 6 to the flash drive in under a minute. It took similar time to transfer it back to the iPhone. Users need to be careful and not move the drive during transfers. If your phone moves even a little bit, the process just stops and the whole process needs to be restarted.

Verdict
SanDisk iXpand USB flash drive offers a convenient way of adding extra storage to your iPhone or iPad, especially if you have a model that has less memory. It’s simple to use and portable, and the fact that it doesn’t require iTunes to manage content, makes things even better. If you want a quick way of freeing up valuable space on your iOS device, SanDisk iXpand is worth considering.