Taking photos and videos with your iPhone has become the new norm, but extra storage on iOS devices is still pretty expensive. The DataTraveler Bolt Duo is a travel-sized flash drive for your personal photos and videos that works with iOS and connects via the lightning port on your iPhone or iPad.
What is the DataTraveler Bolt Duo?
The DataTraveler Bolt Duo by Kingston is a flash storage drive that connects via the lightning port on your iPhone or iPad. When used in conjunction with the Kingston Bolt iOS app you can either backup or completely move photos or videos from your iOS device to the DataTraveler Bolt Duo. You can even take photos or videos and save them directly to the DataTraveler Bolt Duo and bypass the internal iOS storage all together.
Specifications:
- Capacity: 32GB, 64GB, and 128 GB
- Connects via Lightning
- USB 3.1 Gen 1
- Dimensions: 40.7mm x 12.2mm x 7mm
- Weight: 7.2g
- Compatible with the iPhone 5 or newer
- Compatible with the iPad (4th generation), iPad Air, iPad Air 2, iPad (2017), iPad Mini, iPad Mini 2, iPad Mini 3, iPad Mini 4, iPad Pro (1st generation), iPad Pro (2nd generation)
- Requires iOS 9.0 or above
- Video File Format Compatibility: m4v, mp4, mov, hevc
- Image File Format Compatibility: bmp, jpg, png, heif
- MFi Certified: “Made for iPhone and iPad” compliant
- 2-year warranty and free technical support
Why You Might Need the Bolt Duo
There are several reasons you might want to consider picking up a Bolt Duo. The obvious reason is that you like to take a lot of photos and videos with your iPhone and you are constantly running out of storage. Last year I wrote an article here on GeekDad about how to squeeze into a 64 GB iPhone X. As the iPhone cameras get better and better the physical size of each image and video also increases, but Apple is not very generous with their iPhone capacity options so many people opt for the base level of storage. The Bolt Duo is one way to combat that if your primary need for storage is photo or video related.
Data backup is another reason to consider the Bolt Duo. Even if you have purchased additional iCloud storage you don’t always have fast reliable WiFi or cellular data access, specifically if you are traveling in another country or on a cruise. You can always re-download and re-purchase an app or your music , but you can’t ever get back family photos or videos once they are lost. Too many people have relied on their iPhone during a family vacation for photos and videos only to have their iPhone stolen or damaged and then they lose everything (sometimes years worth of family memories). With the Bolt Duo you can carry around a very large capacity flash drive with you on your keychain and that will ensure that your family memories are never at risk from a single point iPhone loss.
Verdict
The DataTraveler Bolt Duo is a very sturdy, light-weight, and portable flash drive and is extremely easy to take everywhere you go. The most important aspect of the Bolt Duo is the easy to use Kingston Bolt iOS app. The app interface is designed with data management in mind, which is why the available storage of both your iOS device and the Bolt Duo is the first thing you see when you open the application. “Transfer”, “Capture”, and “View” are the three main options you have when using the app which makes quick everyday use simple and intuitive.
If there is one drawback about the Bolt Duo it is that it does not work with movies and TV shows. If you have purchased movies or TV shows via iTunes the file format of these videos is not compatible with the Bolt Duo. However, if you have ripped your own video into one of the compatible formats listed above in the specifications section of this article then you can store and views those videos on the Bolt Duo (but video names are not retained so actually finding the video you want to watch is not easy). Bottom line, this device is not meant to be used for commercial movie and TV show storage and consumption.
I’ve been using the Bolt Duo and Kingston Bolt app for a couple of weeks now and within a couple of minutes I was off and running with the app and never looked back. Personal photo and video movement back and forth between the iOS device and the Bolt Duo is fast and the app is easy to quickly get in and out of (which is important for photo and video management). If you are running out of space on your iOS device and take a lot of photos or videos or even if you are planning to go on vacation soon I highly recommend picking one of these up…the peace of mind alone is worth the minimal cost of this device.
The Kingston Bolt Duo is available in all three capacities on Amazon.com and range in price between $34.99 – $69.99.
Disclaimer: I was provided with a 64 GB DataTraveler Bolt Duo for the purpose of this review.
Thanks for sharing the specification of all bolt duo. Data traveler is the flash storage drive that connects via the lightning port on your iPhone or iPad. You can get all the characteristics of Bolt Duo. It has more advantages than disadvantages, thatswhy we all loved this.