For those who are unaware, OTG (On-The-Go) pen drives essentially allow users to connect flash storage with devices such as smartphones and tablets. Compared with the normal pen drives, which can only be connected to computers, the OTG pen drives provide users with more portability and connect their storage device with the smartphone directly instead of transferring data via computer. Based on our ratings and research, here are the best OTG drives you can buy in India worthy of being included in this list of 2018. We review and update this list every few months in order to update the price, pictures and even products in this list if need be.
If we talk about pen drives and leave out Kingston, it will be unfair to a brand that has developed its strong position in the industry over the years. Kingston’s OTG category offering, the Data Traveler 3.0 comes with a USB 3.0 and a micro-USB port. The pen drive is available in three storage options, i.e. 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB. While design-wise, Kingston doesn’t bring anything extraordinary to the table, its pen drive is certainly among the more expensive options available in the market.
Transcend Jet Flash 340 pen drive comes with dual interface (USB Type-A to micro USB) and comes with a stick-based design that is comparatively bigger than other entries in the list. It measures 52x18x8mm and weighs around 9 grams. Unfortunately, in terms of build quality, the OTG drive from Transcend falls short in comparison with rest of its competitors. Due to use of plastic, the pen drive is prone to scratches and scuffs in normal day usage.
The iXpand OTG pen drive series from SanDisk allows iOS users to carry around extra storage with them at all times. Thanks to the USB Type-A to the lightning port, users can connect and transfer data from their devices to the external storage. Considering the fact that iPhone and iPad users often run out of storage and lack SD card slots and expandability options from the Cupertino company, the expand flash drive is nothing short of a boon. However, one of the downsides for being such an innovative product is that users need to pay premium price for the flash drive. One of the major drawbacks of the drive is that it cannot hold files that are larger than 4GB in size.
The Sandisk Ultra Dual OTG pen drive features a retractable design with dual micro-USB and USB 3.0 connectors. The pen drive offers data transfer speeds of up to 150Mbps over USB 3.0 connectivity. With the help of SanDisk Memory Zone application, which is already available on Google Play, users can easily manage their photos and videos through this pen drive. With its extremely compact design, carrying around the OTG pen drive from SanDisk is not an arduous task by any means.
Just like the iXpand OTG pen drive from Sandisk, Strontium’s Nitro iDrive also allows users to provide external storage to their iOS devices. The OTG pen drive from Strontium comes with a USB 3.0 and a lightning port. Unfortunately, the drive doesn’t score any marks in terms of design and aesthetics. Further, it comes at a price point that far exceeds its Android-supporting competitors. Advantages include transferring data between iOS devices without connecting it to a computer.
PRODUCT NAME | PRICE |
DESIGN |
FEATURES |
PERFORMANCE |
VFM |
EXPERT RATING |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kingston Data Traveler 3.0 microDuo | 498 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 8.4 |
Transcend Jet Flash 340 | NA | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8.1 |
SanDisk iXpand Mini Flash Drive | 2,289 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 7.8 |
SanDisk Ultra Dual 32GB pen drive | 699 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 7.8 |
Strontium Nitro iDrive | 4,799 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 7.2 |
We’ve curated this list based on our own expert reviews, overall user reviews from shopping websites like Amazon and Flipkart and expert reviews from trusted websites like PCWorld, PCMag, and TechRadar.
As far as the weighted averages of our final expert scores are concerned, the split is: 50% for expert reviews, 25% for expert reviews from our trusted websites, and 25% for user reviews.
For example, in this list the SanDisk iXpand Mini Flash Drive had a score spilt of:
Expert Score: 8.5
Review Score from trusted websites (from Cnet and PCMag): 6/10
User reviews (from Amazon and Flipkart): 8.3
Overall Expert Score (Rounded-off): 7.8