Kingston’s DataTraveler OTG MicroDuo Drives Changed My Life

I have a mixed OS household. My laptop is a Macbook Pro, but my tablet is a Nexus 7. My daughter also has a Macbook Pro, but an HTC Android phone. This leads to a few headaches. You see, in order to transfer files from Mac OS to Android, one has to install Android File Transfer. Except every time Apple or Google update their OSes, this breaks. Yes, I can transfer via Wi-Fi, but that’s so much slower and annoying. It’s worse with the HTC phone, which eschews AFT for HTC Sync Manager, which is just slow and buggy. There has to be a more efficient way to transfer files from a desktop to a phone/tablet.

Kingston thinks so too. They’ve come out with a new line of “OTG” drives. These MicroDuo drives are dual-headed. You can get a USB 2.0 model that also connects to MicroUSB or a pair of USB 3.0 models–one for MicroUSB and one for the newer USB-C. Using them is as easy as plugging the drive into your laptop/desktop, moving files, and then plugging into your Android device–or Windows phone/tablet, or your new MacBook that only has a USB-C port. The drive is snappy, copying files in half the time of some other USB drives I have laying about. It’s also good for more than file transfers–if you have a non-expandable device, like my Nexus 7 tablet, the DataTraveler OTG Duo can just add as extra storage, perfect for the DRM-free Bloom County Humble Bundle.

Normally, at the end of a review like this, I’ll note that Kingston gave me a review unit. This is true. In fact, they gave me both the USB 3.0 drives, both MicroUSB and USB-C. But here’s the thing–even with a free one, I’m buying a second one. That’s because Amazon has them on sale right now. The 32 GB MicroUSB model is only $11.95 (USB-C is out of stock just now). That’s an absolute steal.

Liked it? Take a second to support GeekDad and GeekMom on Patreon!