Within the last year, mobile-friendly storage that works with your PC, smartphone, or tablet, has gone from an obscure niche to an important part of the personal-storage landscape. Lexar's own entrant into the category is the 32GB JumpDrive M20 Mobile USB 3.0 ($36.99), a flash drive that offers both USB 3.0 and microUSB connections for use with laptops and Android devices alike. It's in the same vein as the Leef Bridge 3.0($6.81 at Amazon) and the Editors' Choice Kingston DataTraveler MicroDuo 3.0 (64GB)($13.99 at Amazon), and offers a good third alternative for storage shoppers.

Design and Features
The JumpDrive M20( at Amazon) has the most traditional-looking flash drive design of the dual-connector drives I've reviewed. With a white, plastic body and blue slider and end-cap, the JumpDrive M20 looks a little like a cigarette lighter, and measures 2.04 by 1 by 0.52 inches (HWD). On one end is a lanyard loop, so you can attach the drive to a keychain. The positioning will actually make it much easier to attach than either the Kingston MicroDuo or the Leef Bridge 3.0.

The drive uses a slider to extend either the USB 3.0 or microUSB connectors for use, and has a neutral middle position that leaves both plugs covered by the drive housing. This is far better than having a cap cover, which could easily get lost. The sliding design is similar in some respects to what you see with the Leef Bridge( at Amazon) and the Leef Bridge 3.0, but it protects the drive and connectors in a full plastic housing instead of a three-sided cover. The drive has a sliding lock that extends one connector or the other with a press and a slide, which is a little awkward—I prefer the push-button lock used on the Leef Bridge 3.0, or the non-moving design of the Kingston MicroDuo.

The drive comes preformatted to FAT32, so it will work with all PC operating systems (Windows, Mac OSX, etc.), while the microUSB connector lets you connect to tablets and smartphones. While this will come in handy for a few Windows tablets we've seen without full-size USB onboard, it's primarily meant for Android devices. The drive should work with any device running Android 4.1 or higher that has USB On The Go (OTG) enabled. While most devices come with some sort of file manager, Lexar recommends the ASTRO File Manager App (free via Google Play).

The actual plug design might not play nicely with every port, as the connector extends right out of the drive housing—I found that my own phone had trouble connecting due to the OtterBox case I use. This wasn't as big a problem with the Kingston MicroDuo, which has a much smaller body, or with the Leef Bridge 3.0, which extends the connector out slightly from the main housing.

Pricing and Performance
The Lexar JumpDrive M20 Mobile 3.0 drive is available in three capacities: 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB, though I only tested and reviewed the 32GB model. With a list price of $36.99, Lexar is selling the drive for roughly $1.15 per gigabyte. The other models are in the same neighborhood, with the 16GB model ($21.99) at $1.37 per gigabyte and the larger 64GB model ($69.99) at $1.09 per gigabyte. This is actually a little pricey when compared with the Kingston DataTraveler MicroDuo, which sells for 78 cents per gigabyte, and the Leef Bridge 3.0, which sells for a more comparable $1.12 per gigabyte. Lexar covers the JumpDrive M20 Mobile 3.0 with a three-year warranty, which actually falls two years short of Kingston's 5-year warranty.

While the price is a little high and the warranty a bit short, the JumpDrive M20 Mobile does take full advantage of the USB 3.0 interface, offering some of the best performance we've seen in mobile-friendly storage. Testing the full-size USB 3.0 connection on a PC with our timed file transfer test, the Lexar JumpDrive M20 Mobile averaged read speeds of 92MBps and write speeds of 36MBps. This is notably faster than both the Leef Bridge 3.0 (35MBps read; 8MBps write) and the Kingston DataTraveler microDuo (38MBps read; 12MBps write).

Under USB 2.0, the drive offered slightly slower performance, averaging 32MBps (read) and 11MBps (write), which is par for the course. In general, transfer speeds were much slower when connected via microUSB, but the actual speeds varied widely from one device to the next. Reading media files directly from the drive is relatively smooth and painless, but the slower speeds are evident when copying media files to and from the drive.

Conclusion
The Lexar JumpDrive M20 Mobile USB 3.0 (32GB) is a great addition to the selection of mobile-friendly storage solutions on the market, especially for those looking for zippy performance over USB 3.0. However, the drive itself is bulkier than we'd like—you don't want a large drive sticking out of the bottom of your phone or tablet—and the price is just a little higher than competing drives. If performance is a major concern, the Lexar JumpDrive M20 Mobile 3.0 (32GB) is a compelling option, but for the best overall design and value for the money, our top pick for USB flash drives remains the Kingston DataTraveler microDuo 3.0 (64GB).

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Further Reading

• Crucial Launches Its Fastest Ever M.2 SSD
• Patriot Launches PXD USB 3.2 Portable SSDs
• Business Choice Awards 2020: Routers and Servers/Network Attached Storage
• Reader's Choice Awards 2020: Routers and Network Attached Storage
• Icy Dock Launches PCIe Hot-Swappable 2.5-Inch Drive Bay