Best USB-C Flash Drives with USB-A Compatibility
May 2023 Ian Chiu
We tested six dual flash drives from Lexar, PNY, Sandisk, Silicon Power, SSK, and Transcend. These drives serve as a bridge between USB-C and legacy USB-A ports. With both connectors available, there’s no need for multiple drives or adapters, making it easier to transfer files across devices of different platforms.
In our September 2024 update, we’ve removed the Samsung Duo Plus and the Kingston DataTraveler from the round-up since they are no longer in production. In their place, we’ve added the Silicon Power DS72, SSK Dual Drive, and Transcend ESD310C.
Contents
Our Picks
Both Silicon Power DS72 and Transcend ESD310C are our top choices when it comes to dual-headed flash drives. Speed-wise, they are in a league of its own, breezing through our benchmarks. Overall performance is impressive, as these drives are essentially mid-range SSDs in a thumb drive form factor. Having said that, both Silicon Power and Transcend are made for heavy-duty purposes and aren’t optimized for size. (You can compare their relatives in the specs table below.)
What are Dual Flash Drives?
Dual flash drives – having USB Type-A and USB-C connectors on opposite ends – are becoming more relevant as more computers and smartphones ship with the reversible USB port exclusively. They make sure you have readily access to your data on your future-proof USB-C devices as well as giving you backward compatibility on PCs with good old USB Type-A. For this reason, it will never hurt to have at least one of these dual-headed flash drives in case you need a quick and easy file transfer solution.
Feature Comparison
 Lexar JumpDrive D400 $27.99 for 256GB |  PNY Duo Link $29.99 for 256GB |  Sandisk Ultra Dual Luxe $24.98 for 256GB |  Silicon Power DS72 SSD $34.99 for 250GB |  SSK Dual USB-C Drive $36.99 for 256GB |  Transcend ESD310C $38.99 for 256GB |
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| Storage: | 64 - 512GB | 128 - 256GB | 32GB - 1TB | 250GB - 1TB | 128GB - 2TB | 256GB - 2TB |
| Interface(s): | USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C | USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C | USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C | USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C | USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C | USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C |
| UASP? | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dimensions: | 60.6 x 16.2 x 9.7mm | 42.7 x 7.62 x 1.27mm | 44.5 x 12.2 x 8.6mm | 81 x 21.3 x 10.4mm | 78 x 20.5 x 8.6mm | 71.3 x 20 x 7.8mm |
| Weight: | 17.4g | 9g | 17g | 15.6g | 37g | 11g |
| Build Material: | Metal | Metal | Metal | Rubberized body | Metal | Metal body, plastic caps |
| USB Plug Protection? | Rotating cap | Rotating cap | Rotating cap | "Flip" caps | One removable cap and one rotating cap | Two removable caps on opposite ends |
| Color(s): | Gray | Silver | Silver | Black | Gray | Black, silver & pink |
| Android File Manager? | No | No | Sandisk Memory Zone | No | No | Transcend Elite data management |
| Release Date: | March 2023 | Feb 2023 | Oct 2023 | April 2024 | April 2023 | April 2023 |
| Warranty: | 5 years | 1 year | 5 years | 5 years | 5 years | 5 years |
Pricing is last updated by Amazon on 2024-09-16 at 11:35. When you buy through Amazon affiliate links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Benchmark Analysis
We carried out our drive benchmarks on two different platforms – Windows 10 Pro running on MacBook Pro (2019) and iPadOS 17.6.1 running on Apple iPad Pro (2021). For our PC benchmark, our testing with the USB-C interface involved transferring a 9GB MP4 file back and forth between our MacBook Pro and the drives. We then repeated the process with a 5GB folder containing 1000 JPEGs. Tests were carried out on Nodesoft’s DiskBench.
From the graph above, both the Silicon Power DS72 and Transcend ESD310C have an overwhelming lead over their competitors in performance. Expect upwards of 700MB/s in read and 600MB/s in write during large file operations. For small files, transfer speed didn’t drop below 340MB/s. The Silicon Power DS72 and Transcend ESD310C are essentially UFDs equipped with SSD controllers. The latter, for instance, uses the Silicon Motion SM2320 native USB flash controller – the same one found in Kingston’s DataTraveler Max and XS2000. Incidentally, Sandisk’s Ultra Dual Luxe has also been retested, and the refreshed model gained a massive speed boost, particularly in read performance, compared to the previous version.
Next, we looked into the kind of performance you can expect if you plan on using these dual flash drives for regular photo backups and large video imports on an Apple iPad Pro. The 2021-model iPad Pro is equipped with USB-C capable of delivering 10Gbps through USB 3.2 Gen 2 and 40Gbps through USB4. That said, Lexar JumpDrive D400, PNY Duo Link, and Sandisk Ultra Dual Luxe are limited to 5Gbps (USB 3.2 Gen 2 Gen 1) whereas Silicon Power DS72, SSK Dual Drive, and Transcend ESD310C connect at 10Gbps (USB 3.2 Gen 2). For this set of benchmarks, we repeated the same copying process with the same files we used on the MacBook Pro earlier.
Again, both the Silicon Power DS72 and Transcend ESD310C consistently outperformed other drives on our iPad Pro. Read and write performance across the board was significantly faster with these two, making them the clear choice for photo and video backup on smartphones and tablets with USB-C.
Beginning with iPadOS 15, a progress bar is introduced in iPadOS’ Files app to indicate the amount of data being copied and the remaining time needed for the file transfer to complete. Apple also has made significant improvements to USB drive performance on iPadOS, bringing it up to par with that of Windows. Before the much-needed overhaul, there was definitely something wrong with how Apple handled write operations on UFDs. It’s good to hear the issue has now been resolved.
Drive Design & Software
Lexar JumpDrive D400, PNY Duo Link, and Sandisk Ultra Dual Luxe all share the same swiveling cap design and come with a durable all-metal body. They do a good job at dissipating the heat but we had to wait half a minute or so as it might get too hot to handle after several minutes of intense I/O operations.
SSK Dual Drive also has a flip cap to protect its USB-C connector, but there’s a removable cap on the opposite end. Silicon Power DS72 opts for a plastic flip cap design for both plugs, while Transcend ESD310C comes with two removable caps for plug protection as well as preventing the drive’s sharp edges from puncturing jean pockets.
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Pricing is last updated by Amazon on 2024-09-16 at 11:35. When you buy through Amazon affiliate links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Nexcopy manufactures a variety of PC-based and standalone USB duplicator solutions.
PC based systems support advanced USB functions such as write protection, CD-ROM partition and multi-partition creation, while standalone systems are ultra-fast, high speed USB copiers duplicating gigabytes of data quickly and accurately.