Here's a quick review of the UGREEN USB-C/A flash drive. With modern phones and even tablets and laptops sporting a USB-C port, we are living in a transitional period where both type C and A are relevant, and important. The trouble comes when you want to move data between devices, but one is USB-C only, and one is USB-A only. In comes the UGREEN USB-C/A flash drive!
For a video review with a bit more detail showing how it performed on my phone:
It's a really tiny, compact flash drive of MINIMAL size. It is an all-metal construction, which is unique in that all the others I've seen have plastic bodies. It includes a tiny ring to add it to your keychain, which is nice because a tiny metal flash drive is something I actually DO carry on my keychain regularly. Previously, I was using a Patriot TAB.
Here are some pictures I took of it. One thing that was as head scratcher for me was the hinged piece with the ring does NOT lay flat when it is swung onto the USB-A side. That DOES make it a bit tougher to remove when plugged into a USB-C device.
Plugging it into my phone (Lumia 950) it worked well. It shows up in the Storage settings, and I could browse the files in the File Manager. Considering that I would use such a device to either move files to/from the phone, or to watch media like movies, this all worked fine.
What I hoped for would be that all media would automatically show up in the Movies and TV app, or the Photos app, but it does not. I could swear it did on a previous build, but it did not seem to happen. Not a huge deal, you can view and access all the files through the file manager. But it is something that I really would like to have, especially when using continuum.
Plugging it into my Surface Pro 3 was pretty uneventful. It worked just like you would expect a USB flash drive to work. Transfer speeds were not fantastic... reading from the drive would sustain a solid 37MB/s, but WRITING to the drive hung around the 10MB/s mark. It's definitely no speed demon, but the convenience of both USB types is it's standout feature. I would say it is in line with the speeds I've seen of similarly priced flash drives. This 16GB unit runs around $13, with 8GB being only $10, up to 64GB at $40.
So yes, I would recommend this drive, mainly for the sheer convenience of having both USB types on a flash drive that is smaller than most drives that only support ONE type. The best part is, you don't seem to have to pay a premium for that convenience either.
Pros:
-Sports both USB Type C and Type A connectors.
-Super compact design
-Can be attached to a keychain
-Very fairly priced
-All metal construction
Cons:
-Hinged piece does not lay flat on USB-A side
-Transfer speeds are not very fast.
-Comes with provisions for dust protection
Links:
UGREEN Official Site
Buy on Amazon
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