Pros & Cons
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- Offers storage for PC, Mac, Android, and iOS devices.
- Works with old and new connections.
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- Pricey.
- Separate pieces are easily separated and lost.
- Bulky when fully assembled.
PhotoFast i-FlashDrive (16GB) Specs
| Capacity (Tested) | 16 |
With our digital lives spanning several devices on a daily basis, the absence of a simple storage solution for all our digital stuff is a growing problem for a lot of people, whether you're attempting to enjoy media files from your PC on your phone or trying to access documents between several products. It's precisely these sorts of problems that PhotoFast is attempting to solve with the i-FlashDrive (16GB) ($169.99), a handy flash drive that offers connections for USB, microUSB, and Apple's 30-pin and Lightning connectors. The i-FlashDrive has connections for everything, from Android phones to iPads old and new, but is it the best option for solving all of your storage woes?
Design and Features
The i-FlashDrive is one drive with three different pieces. The main component houses the 16GB of flash memory, and has a microUSB connection on one side (for plugging into Android phones and tablets) and Apple's 30-pin connector on the other (for connecting to older iPhones and iPads). The other two pieces are actually plug adapters, with one slotting onto the microUSB connector and offering a full-size USB 2.0 connection (for connection to a PC or Mac), and the other slotting into the 30-pin connector to turn it into the more current Lightning adapter used on current iPhones and iPads.
View All It is worth noting, however, that these connections are all made specifically for data transfer, so attempting to use the plug adapters for syncing or charging, or using it as a plug adapter for something other than the i-FlashDrive will not work, according to the company.
Each of the i-FlashDrive's connectors comes with a clear plastic cap to keep out dust and grime, but between the fact that there's no way to secure a loose cap and the propensity for small clear objects to be nearly invisible, there's every chance these caps will be lost within minutes of opening the package. For example, if there was a cover included for the Lightning connector, it was lost by the time the drive made it to my desk, and I have yet to find it. The clear plastic also seems brittle, and I could see one of the caps being easily crushed if dropped under foot.
