Introducing USB Flash Drives For Smartphones! [See Photos]

With mobile devices like smartphones and tablets becoming an integral part of
our life, even replacing the PC for some, the need for sufficient storage space has
now become more critical than optional. This is further heightened by the
increasing size of apps and games as developers want to utilize the high
resolution, pixel packed displays of new mobile devices and the growing size of
videos and pictures shot through high-resolution cameras of these devices.
Unfortunately, even though smartphone cameras are now capable of recording 4K
videos, a number of premium smartphones do not include a slot for expanding
storage.
Thanks to USB on-the-go, it’s easy to plug in conventional storage drives like
pen drives. However, with the need for adapters and cables, the process is a bit
cumbersome. To make it more seamless, storage solution companies have now
introduced USB drives that feature a micro-USB port in addition to supporting
USB on-the-go functionality. Storage solutions company Strontium offers on-the-
go USB drives under its Nitro product line for tablets and smartphones that
support USB-on-the-go functionality.
The drive sports a compact form factor and features a standard USB port (USB
2.0) on one end and a micro-USB port on the other to plug into mobile devices
without the need for an additional cable.
The drive is available in 8, 16, 32 and 64GB storage capacities, with prices
starting at Rs 490 and going up to Rs 3,000. The USB on-the-go drive offers
write speed of up to 5MB per second and read speed of 15MB per second. One of
the biggest advantages of USB on-the-go drive is that it can be used for
expanding storage capacity of devices that don’t feature external storage slots.
However, as we mentioned, the mobile devices need to offer support for USB on-
the-go function. So, its application is limited to Android devices and PCs, but not
Windows Phone and iOS gadgets.
Windows Phone does not support USB on-the-go and iOS devices use a
proprietary connector. In our use, the Strontium Nitro USB OTG drive worked as
promised. We did not encounter any problems while transferring data from a PC
to an Android phone and vice versa.
The only thing that bothered us was that the drive heats up after a brief period of
use. The company informed this was due to the drive’s design. The temperature
goes up to as much as 40-42 degrees, but would not damage the drive or the
smart device. The company elaborated that the design of Strontium OTG was
based on half-size CoB or micro CoB (Chip on Board), which causes the heating.
The heating effect was only noticeable when the product was used with an
Android device and not a laptop or PC.
“We conducted a study on the heating effect with a Samsung smartphone and
found that the phone’s unusual behaviour was responsible for the heating effect
because even at the time when there was no operation in execution, the phone
was still accessing the OTG which eventually heated it up,” a company
spokesperson stated.
The drive’s metal casing was also responsible for the heating effect and the
company is looking at other possible solutions to overcome the thermal effect, he
added. Strontium is also working on a USB 3.0 version of the Nitro OTG drive.
SanDisk, Kingston and Sony also offer similar products. SanDisk Ultra Dual
USB Drive is available in 16GB to 64GB capacities in the price range of Rs
1,199 to Rs 3,800. Kingston’s DataTravler microDuo drives are available at a
price of Rs 1,200 for the 16GB drive and Rs 2,200 for the 32GB drive.
Sony’s USB on-the-go drive costs Rs 1,399 (16GB) and Rs 2,633(32GB).