Flash drives with two interfaces are not new, but still not so common. But if flash drives with a microUSB connector are still highly specialized, as they are used for smartphones and tablets with USB -OTG (which is not supported by all mobile devices), then the USB Type -C port is more versatile and promising in the sense that it is used on many modern laptops and tablets, as well as conventional computers. Today we will talk about the SanDisk Ultra Dual 3.1 model with two interfaces - regular USB 3.0 and USB Type -C 3.1.
USB Flash SanDisk Ultra Dual 3.1
The drive comes in a compact, thick paper package. The design is familiar to Sandisk. Complete set - expectedly absent. For the test, we got a model with a volume of 64 GB, but there are 5 models on sale with a volume from 16 to 256 GB.
The flash drive has a convenient combined case made of plastic and metal.
From above, using the stop, the flash drive extends in both directions: on the one hand, a USB 3.0 connector appears, on the other, a USB Type-C connector of 3.1 standard.
Not so much decorative as practical is the eyelet for the lace, so if necessary, you can attach the flash drive to a bunch, or hang a tag, or a regular lace to reduce the likelihood of losing the drive.
The flash drive is medium in size, so it is convenient to use it, but this is only half the battle. Much more important - speed performance. And here synthetic tests come to the rescue.
First we will have ATTO Disk Benchmark, which demonstrates enough high figures - 155 and 94 MB / s at the peak for reading and writing, respectively. Let's be honest, the numbers are even too high.
Then we ran CrystalDiskMark and got absolutely similar numbers - 155 and 94 MB / s for reading and writing, respectively. That rare case when these two different tests show the same numbers. But let's be honest - 94 MB / s for writing is very high results, so we decided to check it in the simplest (but at the same time even more objective) way - by copying large files.
And the secret turned out to be simple - the first gigabyte is recorded at the maximum speed (94 Mb / s), but then the speed drops to 20-30 Mb / s and is fixed at this figure until the end of the recording. That is, the flash drive has a fast buffer (or cache, whichever is more convenient for you), which provides such a high write speed, but when working with files larger than 1 GB, you will have to be content with a real speed of 20-30 MB / s. But as for the read speed, it is always the maximum and is 130-150 MB / s.
Another "consumer" moment is the heating characteristic of many USB 3.0 flash drives, which has not bypassed this model either. At the same time, it must be recognized that even after prolonged operation, the flash drive can be safely held in your hands, that is, the heating, although strong, is not critical.
conclusions
Flash SanDisk Ultra Dual 3.1 is a flash drive with a good read speed, which reaches 150 MB / s, but a high write speed of 90 MB / s can only be enjoyed on small files, and when writing more than 1 GB of information, you will have to be content with lower rates - 20-30 MB / s. The presence of two interfaces - always relevant USB and albeit less relevant, but no less promising USB Type -C - this is a significant plus of this model, which will provide this model with high demand in a year or two, since USB Type -C is only gaining momentum and already is now replacing conventional USB on expensive mobile devices. As for the price, for example, our 64 GB model costs about 1500-1800 rubles, that is, it is comparable to conventional USB 3.0 flash drives.
Bulky USB connectors are not entirely appropriate on compact smartphones. But this does not mean that flash drives cannot be connected to them. Agree that this can be very convenient in many situations, especially when the phone does not provide for the use of MicroSD. We suggest you consider all options for connecting a USB flash drive to gadgets with micro-USB connectors.
First you need to find out if your smartphone supports OTG technology. This means that the micro-USB port can supply power to external devices and make them visible in the system. This technology began to be implemented on devices with Android 3.1 and higher.
Information about OTG support can be found in the documentation for your smartphone or simply use the Internet. To be sure, download the USB OTG Checker application, the purpose of which is to check the device for OTG technology support. Just press the button "Check Device OS on USB OTG".
If the check for OTG support was successful, you will see a picture as shown below. 
And if not, you will see this. 
Now you can consider the options for connecting a flash drive to a smartphone, we will consider the following:
- using an OTG cable;
- use of an adapter;
- using a USB OTG flash drive.
For iOS, there is one way - using special flash drives with a Lightning connector for iPhone.
Interesting: in some cases, you can connect other devices, for example: a mouse, keyboard, joystick, etc.
Method 1: Using an OTG cable
The most common way to connect a flash drive to mobile devices involves the use of a special adapter cable, which can be bought at any place where mobile devices are sold. Some manufacturers include such cables with smartphones and tablets.
On the one hand, the OTG cable has a standard USB connector, on the other, a micro-USB plug. It is easy to guess what and where to insert. 
If the flash drive has indicator lights, then you can determine from them that the power has gone. On the smartphone itself, a notification about the connected media may also appear, but not always.
The contents of the flash drive can be found along the path
/sdcard/usbStorage/sda1
To do this, use any file manager. 
Method 2: Using an adapter
Recently, small adapters (adapters) from USB to micro-USB began to appear on sale. This small device has a micro-USB output on one side, and USB contacts on the other. It is enough to insert the adapter into the flash drive interface, and you can connect it to your mobile device. 
Method 3: Using a flash drive for an OTG connector
If you intend to connect the drive frequently, then the easiest option is to purchase a USB OTG flash drive. Such a storage medium has two ports at the same time: USB and micro-USB. It is convenient and practical. 
Today, USB OTG flash drives can be found almost anywhere conventional drives are sold. However, they are not much more expensive.
Method 4: Flash drives for iPhone
There are several special media for iPhones. Transcend has developed a removable drive JetDrive Go 300. It has a Lightning connector on one side, and a regular USB on the other. Actually, this is the only really working way to connect a flash drive to iOS smartphones. 
What to do if the smartphone does not see the connected flash drive
team "Unmount" used to safely eject media. Please note that StickMount requires root access. You can get it, for example, using the Kingo Root program.
The ability to connect a USB flash drive to a smartphone primarily depends on the latter. It is necessary that the device supports OTG technology, and then you can use a special cable, adapter or connect a USB flash drive with micro-USB.
Greetings. Now many people do not know how to connect a USB flash drive to the phone. Because it doesn’t fit corny or there are other reasons due to which it’s impossible to do this. In today's article I want to sort out this issue on the shelves. You will learn how to connect a flash drive to an Android phone (smartphone) and how to view files on it.
Why you need to connect a USB flash drive to a smartphone, I think it is not necessary to explain. The reasons can be completely different and the most unusual. Maybe there are simply no other devices nearby for reading information from a flash drive, or maybe you decided to transfer music to your phone in this way.
How to connect a flash drive to an Android smartphone?
If you are holding an ordinary USB flash drive and your favorite smartphone in your hands, you will see that there is nowhere to insert it. Because the flash drive has a USB Type-A type, and the smartphone has a micro USB Type-B connector. Here's the problem. (Read more about)
Fortunately, many modern smartphones have support for the technology. USB On-The-Go, allowing them to use most peripherals directly without the aid of a computer or laptop. You can connect a mouse or keyboard, work with flash drives and much more. But for this you will need.
An OTG cable usually has a full-fledged USB Type-A on one side, and micro USB Type-B on the other. Therefore, if your smartphone does not have a micro USB connector, then you should take care of an additional adapter to connect a USB flash drive. Although the probability of this is negligible, almost all smartphones and tablets now have a micro USB Type-B connector.
Eventually, to connect the flash drive to the phone, need to:
- to your the smartphone supported USB On-The-Go technology. Although almost all smartphones now support it, however, there are exceptions. Read the specifications of the phone carefully before buying if this parameter is important to you.
- to have in stock. It is inexpensive, so it's good if you still have it. Whether it is not enough when it is useful.
Adapter cables for different types of devices
OTG cables need to be selected depending on which connector is available on your smartphone or tablet. It could be microUSB, appleLightning or most modern USBTYPE-C. The table shows some representatives of these cables.
How to open a flash drive on Android (tablet or phone)?
« How to open a USB flash drive on your phone, there is no shortcut " My computer » and nothing like that?"- you will be surprised. Naturally, for this we will need some kind of file manager. You most likely have some simple pre-installed file manager. But if it is not there, then you need to install it.
Today, popular file managers on Android OS are: File Manager, ES Explorer, Total Commander, X-plore File Manager, File Commander, ASTRO and others. There are actually a lot of them. For example, I have been using X-plore. I fell in love with it since the days when the Symbian operating system (Symbian OS) was popular on smartphones. X-plore is a convenient, functional and free manager. What else is needed?
X-plore - file manager
Then just connect the flash drive to the phone and go to the file manager. There it will be displayed with all the content. Of course, a completely different question, can a smartphone work with all the files? It's still not a computer. But it can work with the main ones. There are even special programs for working with Excel spreadsheets, but it's so inconvenient that I don't even know who these programs are written for.
Why does the smartphone not see the flash drive through the OTG cable?
There can be many reasons why your smartphone does not see a USB flash drive. Let's look at the most common ones.
A flash drive is also often not visible on the computer, why? Read.
Micro USB flash drives
You may not have known about this, but there are flash drives that fit the micro USB connector. This information may be useful to you if you plan to frequently connect a USB flash drive to your smartphone, then it makes sense to think about such a purchase.
Micro USB flash drive
There are also combo flash drives that have a USB Type-A output on one side, and micro USB on the other. You can connect such a flash drive to both a computer and a smartphone. Think maybe this is just what you need.
If you still decide to buy a micro USB flash drive, then we advise you to pay attention to the following models with a large amount of memory. In addition, they can be connected to absolutely any type of USB connector.
Conclusion on connecting a flash drive to the phone
In most cases, you will be able to use a USB flash drive on your phone without any problems. What can not but rejoice. However, if you encounter difficulties when connecting a flash drive, do not despair. Many of the problems are resolved fairly quickly. I hope you have learned enough about how to connect a USB flash drive to your phone. If you have any questions, please ask, we will try to help you.
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On the Internet, I came across another interesting accessory - a 64 gigabyte USB flash drive for a computer. It seems like the most ordinary, unremarkable, even boring accessory. But no! The flash drive can connect to any smartphone, and it doesn’t matter which one - on iOS or on Android.
Actually, we already wrote about a similar accessory earlier. Here you can find an overview. About 10 months have passed since then, and the accessory industry has gone a little further - now these gadgets have become a little more stylish, and some have even fallen in price.
Here you are, please, the first copy - it costs $23 at the moment. But its most important advantage is that it is compatible with three types of devices at once:
- with any iPhone, starting from five
- with any Android (via adapter included)
- with any personal computer or Mac
The data transfer rate reaches 5 Mbps, which is quite enough for most situations. For example, to run a series from external memory, if it happens that you use an iPhone with 16 gigabytes.
In addition, using this flash drive, you can not only expand the built-in storage capacity, but also make backups of contacts and store protected copies of files. An ordinary USB flash drive, even through an adapter, cannot allow this.
And the thing is that memory and accessory management is carried out through a special application - I-Usb-Storer, where such advanced functionality is available. To install it, you do not need to jailbreak or somehow hack your favorite iPhone. The utility is in the official Apple store and is downloaded from there directly, which means there is a quality guarantee.
There is only one amount of memory available - 64 GB, but in terms of colors there is where to roam. One such flash drive costs $23.
There is a very similar option that limits the user's choice of color (only black or gold is available), but it is cheaper - $18.67.
Management, including copying, pasting and other operations with files, occurs on the same principle - through a special application. If we are talking about a computer or smartphone on Android, then you don’t even have to install any additional software on them - everything will start by itself.
In terms of compatibility, everything is the same - the device is not younger than the iPhone 5, because the 8-pin Lightning connector appeared for the first time in this particular generation of "apple" smartphones.
In conclusion, about a very tiny accessory, which you can buy 300-400 grams or even a pound. And why not, if we are talking about a USB night light that costs 99 cents?
I inserted it into the computer, into the monitor, into the keyboard, and additional, night lighting of the workplace appeared. A trifle, but nice.
In addition, you can take a few of these pieces with you to nature. I plugged one into a laptop, the other into a portable battery, and here you have a romantic atmosphere in a tent right under the summer, starry sky. Cool? In my opinion, very much.
The material was prepared with the support of the online store Gearbest.comThe volume of user data is increasing every day. Our favorite smartphones and tablets are storing more and more pictures, videos and documents. As a result, the built-in memory of devices quickly runs out. Memory cards are a temporary solution, and some devices do not have a slot for such cards, such as the Apple iPhone SE or Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge.
Where to keep files if the device's memory is "full"? Let's figure it out together!
This problem has two logical solutions - delete some of the files or use an external drive, i.e. "flash drive".
Until recently, to connect a flash drive to a device, you had to use a special adapter, which was purchased separately. But all this is in the past - progress does not stand still! We will tell you about the new two-in-one flash drives - you don't need an adapter for them. They have two connectors. One for direct connection to the device via a micro-USB, Lightning or Type C connector. And the second USB connector is made to use the flash drive "as usual" - to transfer data from a computer.
Does your smartphone or tablet have the most common micro-USB connector?
The best choice in this case would be SanDisk Ultra Dual USB Drive flash drives. They are equipped with an additional micro-USB plug - for direct connection to your device.
Do you have an Apple device?
Special Leef iBridge flash drives for Apple are suitable for you. They also support two types of connectors. Apple's Lightning to connect directly to an iPhone or iPad, and standard USB to use with a computer. In addition, the first time you connect, Leef iBridge will prompt you to install a program for quick work with files (including music, photos and videos) on your iOS device. This will save you the hassle of syncing your iPhone with your PC, as well as tediously long file transfer operations through the iTunes application. Just copy files from your computer to a flash drive. And then connect it to your Apple device, and either transfer files to your iPhone or iPad, or work with them directly from a flash drive.
Is your smartphone equipped with the new USB Type C connector?
The new "USB Type C" is comparable to Apple's Lightning connector, it can be connected "either way" and now you will not miss - it's convenient!
Kingston DataTraveler microDuo 3C flash drives equipped with USB Type C connectors (for your device) and regular USB are suitable for you. If you own a Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga ultrabook or a Microsoft Lumia 950 smartphone, then you will surely appreciate all the advantages of convenient file access and fast data exchange between a computer and a portable device.
If the choice is made in favor of one of the flash drives, it's time to decide on its volume
To transfer "light" documents, a couple of music albums or several dozen photos, 16 GB is enough. If you need to save a dozen of your favorite movies, and even install a couple of games, you should buy a 32 or 64 GB flash drive. When it comes to creating and storing hundreds of photos and videos of your past vacation, it’s better to buy a 128 GB flash drive right away.
Summing up
In conditions of acute shortage of space on your devices, two-in-one flash drives will be an excellent solution. Support for two connectors and the ability to connect a flash drive directly to the device without inconvenient adapters will make the process of working with files as simple and fast as possible.
Now you don’t have to painfully choose “what to remove and what to leave?” in the memory of your smartphone or tablet - just transfer the files to a USB flash drive and forget about such problems!
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