USB flash drives have been ubiquitous for decades, remaining the go-to option for anyone who needs local, pocketable access to key files. These tiny drives are still sold everywhere (including chain drug stores, usually at highly inflated prices), despite companies like DropBox, Google, and Microsoft making cloud storage a convenient and often free alternative (depending on capacity).
Because these drives seemingly last forever, you could be hanging onto one that’s pitifully slow by today’s standards, and too cramped to hold all the data you want. Capacities of up to 2TB are an option with some models (and 1TB is becoming common), and performance on the best flash drives approaches that of some of the best external SSDs.
To help you choose what drive is best for you, we’ve tested dozens of recent flash drives from leading brands and listed the best USB flash drives below. However, if fast performance is important to you and you can live with a device that's just a little bit bigger, an external SSD might be a better buy. And while the prices of M.2 SSDs remain low, you may find more value by building your own external SSD.
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Best Flash Drive Overall
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Best Flash Drive Overall
Our expert review:
Capacities:
500GB, 1TB, 2TB
Interface:
USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps)
Connector:
USB-A (USB-C adapter included)
Dimensions:
2.70 x 0.90 x 0.40 inches
Warranty:
3 years
Check AmazonView at Amazon+
Very good performance
+
Affordably priced
-
Plastic exterior feels a little cheap
This drive from networking and storage stalwarts at Buffalo stands out for being a good balance between fast performance and affordable pricing. It usually costs about $20-$30 less than the faster Kingston DataTraveler Max, while still delivering 616.9 MB/s sequential read speed and 543.9 MB/s sequential writes in our CrystalDiskMark tests. It's a bit bulky at about 3/4 of an inch wide at the port, and 0.9 inches wide at its maximum width. It uses a USB Type-A port, although a USB-C adapter is included in the box.
Selling for around $70 for the 1TB model when we wrote this, it's more affordable than many 1TB alternatives, and it's even available in a 2TB model, which usually sells for less than $150. I just wish the drive's plastic shell felt less creaky and cheap, although that's an issue with the pricier Kingston DataTraveler Max, as well. There's a slot at the back of Buffalo's drive for attaching it to a lanyard, but this drive doesn't feel like it would last that long getting jostled around everywhere alongside your keys.
Best Fast, Affordable Flash Drive
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)
Best Fast, Affordable Flash Drive
Our expert review:
Capacities:
256GB, 512GB, 1TB
Interface:
USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps)
Connector:
USB-A (USB-C model also available)
Dimensions:
3.24 x 0.87 x 0.36 inches
Warranty:
5 years
View at Amazon+
Extremely fast
+
256GB model is around $30
+
Long 5-year warranty
-
USB-C connector is too short for motherboards
-
Plastic shell feels a little cheap
Just like its roomier 1TB variant, the 256GB Kingston DataTraveler Max is a speed demon in the flash drive world, even if it falls a bit short of the newer Transcend ESD31C Portable SSD (see our next pic, below). But at $30-$35, Kingston’s 256GB drive is a great balance of speed, affordability and capacity for those who don’t want to spend much more on a roomier fast alternative.
Available with either a USB-C or USB-A connector (though not both, like Transcend’s drive), the 256GB DataTraveler Max performed nearly as well as its more spacious 1TB sibling in our PCMark, DisBench, and CrystalDiskMark tests, making it the second-fastest flash drive we’ve tested (third if you count the 1TB Kingston drive as competition). And it’s also fairly slim, making it easy to slip into a pocket.
Just note that, if you’re a desktop user and you opt for the model with the USB-C port, you will likely have problems plugging the drive into rear USB-C ports on the motherboard. Thanks to the two-piece plastic slide mechanism that protects the drive’s port when not in use, the USB-C connector is just a bit too short to plug into most motherboards successfully. I tried this with three boards I have on hand and had the same issue with each. But, if your PC case has a front USB-C port or you’re using a laptop, this shouldn’t be an issue. I only had a problem with rear motherboard ports and this drive.
Fastest Flash Drive
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)
Fastest Flash Drive
Our expert review:
Capacities:
256GB, 512GB, 1TB
Interface:
USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps)
Connector:
USB-C and USB-A
Dimensions:
2.81 x 0.79 x 0.31 inches
Warranty:
5 years
View at Amazon+
Fastest flash drive we've tested
+
USB-C and USB-A ports
+
Slim (but long)
+
Long 5-year warranty
-
Gets hot after lengthy sustained writes
-
Caps are easy to lose, don’t fit well
If you feel the need for flash drive speed, Transcend’s forgettably named ESD31C Portable SSD is the fastest drive in a true flash drive form factor, although Kingston’s DataTraveler Max wasn’t far behind on most of our tests, and was often a bit speedier when it comes to writes.
Still, with the fastest scores we’ve seen yet for one of these drives in PCMark, DiskBench, and CrystalDiskmar’s sequential tests (see charts, below), The Transcend drive isn’t hard to recommend. Aside from its top-notch performance, it also sports both a UCB-C and a USB-A port (one on each side) and a metal shell that feels a lot nicer than much of its plastic-clad competition. And selling for about $88 when we wrote this (in the 1TB variant we tested), it’s also cheaper than the Kingston drive, which often sells for closer to $100. And the Transcend drive is available in a 2TB model, while Kingston’s drive tops out at 1TB.
That doesn’t mean that Transcend’s ESD31C Portable SSD doesn’t have its drawbacks. For starters, it was the warmest drive we tested under sustained use. After just a few minutes of heavy writes, it hit 93.7 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s not exactly going to burn you, but if using it as an external drive to run programs from, it may get even hotter. This is a downside, in part, to having a slim (0.31-inch) frame rather than the bulkier plastic used by competing drives.
The translucent port caps on either end of the ESD31C Portable SSD also don’t fit very snugly, which makes them easy to lose. But if speed is a key need for your portable, pocketable storage needs (and you don’t want a larger, more traditional portable SSD), the ESD31C is the best, fastest option we’ve tested yet.
Best Cheap and Tiny Flash Drive
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)
Best Cheap and Tiny Flash Drive
Our expert review:
Capacities:
32GB, 64GB, 128GB, 256GB
Interface:
USB 3.1 (5Gbps)
Connector:
USB-A
Dimensions:
0.93 x 0.74 x 0.29 inches
Warranty:
5 years
View at NeweggView at antonlineCheck Amazon+
Tiny
+
Affordable
+
Decent performance
-
Much slower writes than larger, pricier options
-
Capacity tops at 256GB
If you're after a drive that's small enough to leave plugged into your laptop most of the time, or you just want something you can clip to your keychain and forget about until you need it, Samsung's FIT Plus stands out. The 128GB model we tested sells for $18, and when we wrote this the top-capacity 256GB model was selling for just $25 direct from Samsung. At less than an inch long including its USB-A connector, it will stick out of your port less than an inch when plugged in. And it has a hole for a lanyard, it feels solid – in fact, this sub-$20 drive feels better than the most expensive drives on our list. And Samsung says it's rated to survive in up to 1 meter of water for 72 hours. In case it doesn't, the company covers the drive with a generous five-year warranty.
That being said, our testing shows this tiny drive is in a much lower performance class than the bigger, pricier, roomier models. On our real-world DiskBench 10GB test, the Samsung Fit Plus read our files at a decent 319.7 MB/s, but could only write at 58.4 MB/s. That's just over half the read speed and less than 15% of the write speed of Kingston's 1TB DataTraveler Max. That said, the Samsung drive's performance was still significantly better than most of the drives we tested with capacities less than 1TB. SanDisk's Extreme Pro 128GB wrote our test files about twice as fast, but it costs nearly 2.5 times as much and is more than six times longer.
Best High Capacity Flash Drive
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Best High Capacity Flash Drive
Our expert review:
Capacities:
500GB, 1TB, 2TB
Interface:
USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps)
Connector:
USB-A (USB-C adapter included)
Dimensions:
2.70 x 0.90 x 0.40 inches
Warranty:
3 years
View at Amazon+
Very good performance
+
Cheaper than many 2TB external SSDs
-
Plastic exterior feels a little cheap
-
Bulky for a flash drive
There are loads of insanely cheap no-name 2TB flash drives available on Amazon and sites like Aliexpress if you like throwing your money at scammy garbage tech – but the 2TB Buffalo SSD-PUT is real and (at $160 when we wrote this) a surprisingly good deal. It's cheaper than most larger 2TB external SSDs (although some of those will definitely be faster), and significantly smaller (although still bulky for a flash drive). Overall, this drive did slightly better on our benchmarks than its 1TB sibling, meaning it doesn't beat or often quite match the Kingston DataTraveler Max. But for the price -- and especially considering it's one of a very few 2TB drives available from a known brand, this is a very impressive performer.
On the minus side, the drive has the same creaky, cheap-feeling plastic shell as the 1TB model, and it's nearly an inch wide, making it a tight fit on some laptops where the ports are placed close together. But you get a roomy 2TB of pocket-friendly storage at fast speeds (for a flash drive), and a bundled USB-C adapter should your device not have a USB-A port handy. If Buffalo would just release this drive in solid-feeling metal housing (or even a solid-feeling plastic one), this would arguably be the perfect flash drive for those who need lots of storage in their pocket.
Flash Drive Shopping Considerations
One thing to keep in mind when shopping is what type of ports you'll be plugging your flash drive into. Some drives are offered with either a USB-A connector or USB-C, and some come with adapters to convert from USB-A to USB-C or vice versa. A few drives have both connectors on the same drive, which is certainly more convenient than having to keep track of an adapter and have it with you every time you need it. All of the faster flash drives we've tested have a single Type-A or Type-C connector. Also, note that drives that promise speeds of 500 MB/s or more use USB 3.x Gen 2 (10 Gbps) ports. That means if you're plugging those drives into a USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen1 (5Gbps) port (those are still far more common than the faster Gen 2 ports), performance won't be as fast as it could be.
Still, the performance differences between the lower-cost, lower-performing drives in our testing below and the higher-performing 1TB drives that top our test results are at times nearly a factor of 10, especially when it comes to write speeds. So even when you plug one of the fastest drives into a slower 5Gbps port, you should get much better performance than you would if using an older or cheap sub-$20 flash drive.
How We Test Flash Drives
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We ran our benchmark tests on a custom desktop running Windows 10 Pro on an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X CPU and a Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master motherboard with 16GB of RAM and an older (but still speedy) Samsung 960 Pro boot drive. We also spot-checked our first few drives on a newer system using a Ryzen 5 5600X CPU and a much faster PCIe 4.0 Corsair MP600 Pro XT boot drive. But because none of these drives even get close to the bandwidth limitation of PCIe 3.0, there was no discernable performance differences between the two test systems.
All of our benchmark testing was done with drives plugged into the system's rear USB 3.1 Gen 2/ USB 3.2 (10 Gbps) ports. The Aorus board we used has one Type-C and one Type-A port rated for these speeds, so we were able to accommodate drives with both types of connectors.
To get a sense of how these flash drives compare to a larger (though still usually pocketable) external SSD, we also ran our flash drive tests on the Mushkin's CarbonX, a 1TB External SSD that's rated to similar speeds as the fastest flash drives, or "Up to 1,000 MBps." This drive is no longer widely available, but you can expect similar performance from some of the more affordable options on our Best External SSDs list.
Given the falling prices of external SSDs and their general ability to perform better on longer-duration workloads (and particularly small file writes, which we'll see shortly in testing) an external SSD is often a better option if you are going to frequently be moving large amounts of files on and off your drive, and especially if you plan to run programs from your portable storage device. The larger surface area and improved controllers and components of external SSDs tend to be better at those kinds of tasks, though there are of course noticeable performance differences in that product category as well.
PCMark 10 is a trace-based benchmark that uses a wide-ranging set of real-world traces from popular applications and common tasks to measure the performance of storage devices. To test drives that store files rather than applications (in most cases you shouldn't be running programs off a flash drive), we utilize the Data Drive Benchmark in UL's PCMark 10.
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)
Transcend's ESD310C comes out on top here, followed by Kingstion's DataTraveler Max drives. The fact that the Mushkin Carbon X external SSD lands in fourth place attests to how much flash drives have improved in recent years. But showings from the bottom half of this chart still indicate it's only the best flash drives that are at all competitive with portable SSDs.
We use the DiskBench storage benchmarking tool to test file transfer performance, using a custom 10GB dataset made up of 1,204 files of various types including photos, ISO files and videos. First we transfer the files to the drive and record the results. We then give the system at least 5 minutes of idle time before transferring those same files back off the flash drive onto our Samsung 960 Pro SSD.
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)
Again, the Mushkin external SSD is in fourth place here, with the two Silicon Power drives impressing, and the Transcend drive landing in second place. Kingston's DataTraveler Max drives were also impressive here. And the 2TB Buffalo drive still performs decently for its price.
CrystalDiskMark (CDM) is a free and easy-to-use storage benchmarking tool that drive makers have used to assign performance specifications to their products. This test gives us insight into how drives handle different file sizes.
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)
On this test, the Silicon Power drives once again land at the top, followed by Transcend's ESD310C and Kingston's DataTravelers. It's disappointing that the Silicon Power drives don't perform as well elsewhere, because in our real-world and sequential tests, they're among the best, and slightly more affordable than some other drives at the top of our testing.
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)
This small file test really separates the higher-capacity, higher-priced drives from the more mainstream flash drives. Every 1TB drive blows most lower-end options away. But the two Silicon Power drives fall from their top spots in the last two tests to the middle of the pack here.
If you're going to run programs or an operating system from your drive –the kind of workloads that hammer storage devices with lots of small file reads and writes– you should definitely opt for one of the fastest flash drives here or, even better, a speedy external SSD. Note that the Mushkin drive, a true portable SSD, retains the top spot here, with the Orico drive turning in a surprise second-place appearance.
If you've used a flash drive in the past and written lots of data on it, there's a good chance you've grabbed it to yank it out when you're done and winced at the hot – or at the very least surprisingly warm – exterior. We've certainly dealt with uncomfortably toasty drives before, but perhaps that's becoming an issue of the past.
None of the drives we tested felt hot to the touch after testing. And we used an IR thermometer to check the temperature of several during a long 100GB write test. After several minutes of sustained writing, the Transcend and PNY drives got the warmest, but were still under 94 degrees Fahrenheit. The solid-feeling metal-clad Orico drive got up to just 83.4 degrees, and the similarly solid OWC Envoy Pro Mini remained the coolest, at just 78.5 degrees Fahrenheit. The tiny Samsung Fit Plus, which barely has any surface area compared to the other drives, topped out at 82.1 degrees in our testing. Doubtlessly the Samsung drive is helped here by the fact that it writes much more slowly than many of the larger drives.
Other Flash Drives We Tested
Silicon Power MS70 (1TB) and DS72 (1TB): These two drives from Silicon Power perform roughly the same and have similarly solid-feeling shells and flip-up caps. The DS72 has a USB-C connector on one and and USB-A on the other, while the MS70 makes do with just USB-A.
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)
The Silicon Power drives also perform fairly well overall, but were inconsistent on our tests. In Crystal Diskmark's sequential tests, they were the best flash drives we've tested yet, and they were also among the best on our 10GB DiskBench test. But on the PCMark 10 Data Drive benchmark, they consistently delivered scores that were roughly half of what the Transcend and Kingston drives we tested and they weren't particularly impressive in our 4K test, either.
Pricing for the 1TB models that we tested was also in an awkward middle area, between our favorite mainstream drive from Buffalo and the better-performing options from Transcend and Kingston. Still, if the price drops by $10-$20, these would be good options, particularly if you mostly want a drive to move files from one place to another rather than to run programs from, directly. Their physical design and build quality feels better than some of the more expensive options out there.
We tested more than a dozen drives for this list in the quest to find the best flash drives, and will be adding more in the near future. Many of the lower-capacity, lower-priced drives performed poorly overall, proving the adage "you get what you pay for." However, some expensive 1TB drives suffered from disappointing performance in some benchmarks, proving you don't always get a great drive even if you're willing to spend close to $100. Below are some of the drives that stood out but didn't make the list.
Orico USSD-X (512GB): Orico's latest flash drive is wrapped completely in metal, and feels surprisingly solid in your hand. And supposedly it will be offered in several colors. Its performance in our testing hovered between middle of the pack and near the top, excelling in our PCMark and Diskbench tests, especially. That said, its performance didn't stand above the rest in any single test, and at the time of testing, we couldn't find it for sale in the US. Hopefully, the company improves its supply issues, because this USB-A drive feels better to hold and use than arguably any other flash drive we've tested. And its performance is quite solid. We just need to know how much it will cost.
OWC Envoy Pro Mini (1TB): This drive was the second-fastest overall and sports a solid metal shell. But its design is overly complicated, as is its setup process (which forces you to agree to a EULA which, when we wrote this, was still 404ing). Really though, the primary problem with OWC's drive is price. At $149 for the most spacious 1TB model, it's nearly as expensive as the 2TB Buffalo drive. And often the Buffalo drive goes on sale for less.
Patriot Supersonic Rage Prime (1TB): With a name this obnoxiously aggressive (and $90 price to match), we were expecting impressive things from Patriot's top-end flash drive. And it did quite well in some tests, but struggled on our 10GB file transfer test, managing to write at just 91.7 MB/s–behind all but the lower-capacity, much lower-priced drives on this list.
PNY Pro Elite (1TB): We like the solid metal shell of this PNY drive, but its $130 asking price is higher than any other 1TB drive we've tested. And it struggled on our 10GB write test, managing just 96.9 MB/s, which was slower than even Samsung's 256GB Duo Plus drive. There isn't much that's pro or elite about that.
Orico UFSD-C (1TB): This metal-clad USB-C drive looks and feels great and performed quite well overall, though its benchmark results didn't stand out in any real way. Its main issue is availability. The company sent us the 1TB model we asked for, but it doesn't seem to be for sale anywhere in the US. You can order it on Aliexpress, but even there it's only available at up to 512GB, and its $82 current price is close to what we'd expect the 1TB model to sell for.
TeamGroup Extreme Speed (1TB): This drive was another decent performer, delivering read and write speeds in our 10GB test of between 300 and 400 MB/s. But a few other high-end drives were faster, its plastic shell feels like something you'd expect on a $10 drive, and its $130 price means it's just not competitive when faster drives from Buffalo and Kingston cost less than $100.
Corsair Flash Voyager GTX (1TB): The zinc alloy housing of Corsair's 1TB flash drive feels like it could survive a bomb blast or two, and its performance is better than some competitors at this capacity. But its $286 asking price on Amazon (and even crazier $334 price directly from Corsair) feels like a bomb on your credit card bill. Buffalo's 1TB drive performed better in most of our tests and costs a quarter the price.
Samsung Duo Plus (256GB): This drive from Samsung delivered decent results, feels solid, and has a nicely designed housing that incorporates a USB-C-to-USB-A adapter. But it's no longer available at most major outlets, so we chose the smaller Fit Plus drive instead, which is widely available and performs similarly on many of our tests.
Samsung USB-Type-C (128GB): One of Samsung's newer drives, this model sports solely a USB-C connector and isn't much bigger than the USB-A Fit Plus drive. But it's slightly more expensive than the Fit drive and had a tendency to land near the bottom of our tested Samsung drives in terms of performance. If you need USB-C and don't need a lot of speed (and particularly write speed) and capacity (it tops out at 256GB), this isn't a bad drive. It just doesn't stand out in any substantive way. And we wish its write speed were at least twice as fast as the 59-67 MB/s we saw in our sequential tests. Read speeds were, at least, much faster at more than 300 MB/s.
SanDisk Extreme Pro (128GB): While SanDisk's high-end drive performed well compared to other 128GB models, its $43 price at that capacity is about 2.5x that of Samsung's Fit Plus. And while it is available in up to 1TB capacities, the most spacious model sells for between $130 and $200, making it much more expensive than competing drives.
SanDisk Ultra (256GB): SanDisk's plastic-clad Ultra drive is exactly the kind of thing you'll see drastically overpriced at your local pharmacy or big-box store. Online, it seems fairly reasonable at about $20. But Samsung's Fit Plus is much smaller, performed better in most of our tests, and can be found for $5-10 more in the 256GB capacity.
MORE: Best SSDs
MORE: Best External SSDs and Hard Drives
MORE: How We Test HDDs And SSDs
MORE: All SSD Content
$19 at Amazon
Max write/read speeds: 161/208 MB/s | Available sizes (GB): 64, 128REASONS TO BUY
Great data transfer speeds
USB connector retracts for protection
REASONS TO AVOID
Not the cheapest option
On the larger side
Product Updated — June 2023
SanDisk now offers the Extreme Go USB 3.2, which we are linking in our review.
161/208 MB/s |64, 128 SanDisk Extreme Go 64GB displayed an excellent balance of cost and efficiency and proved to be one of the quickest drives during our testing. It completes numerous tasks rapidly, including moving a single large file or a big folder containing a large number of small files. For example, a 5 GB folder filled with thousands of modest files wrote to the drive in just 7 minutes, proving to double the other models' typical speed. Large media files moved even faster, taking only 31 seconds to write a 5GB HD movie. Topping off this stellar performance is the price tag — the Extreme Go 64GB sells for well under the price of many premium drives on the market. The plastic construction feels relatively sturdy, and a smooth sliding mechanism retracts the connector when it's not in use. It's not super tiny, but the body is still thin enough that it won't be in the way of any other ports while in use — we had no problem plugging in a large cable for headphones in the next port over beside the drive.
Though the price is on par with the performance, the cost may be too steep for sporadic use. The drive is also rather large — to the extent that it might make your keychain feel too bulky. Although its plastic build seems more durable than other models, we are not confident it can hold up to the everyday abuse that many of us subject a keychain to. That said, if you need to transfer several gigabytes of data all at once, we think the Extreme Go 64GB won't disappoint.
The SanDisk Extreme Go 64GB offers a great balance of speed, convenience, and price.
Credit: Max Mutter
$8 at Amazon
Max write/read speeds: 14/166 MB/s | Available sizes (GB): 16, 32, 64, 128, 256REASONS TO BUY
Inexpensive
Sturdy build
Decent read speeds
REASONS TO AVOID
Very slow write speeds
14/166 MB/s |16, 32, 64, 128, 256
For the ultimate performance per dollar, check out the SanDisk Ultra CZ48 32GB. Even with its budget pricing, it logged an impressive 166 MB/s maximum read speed in our tests, outperforming almost everything else in this price range. The drive allows for a 5GB movie file to transfer to your computer in only 30 seconds. Surprisingly, despite the drive's low price, the plastic material's quality seems reliable and strong.
The write speeds are the obvious disadvantage to this drive, where the top performance only got up to 14MB/s during our tests. When pushing the drive even harder, speeds continued to decline. For instance, the drive took over 12 minutes when writing a 5GB folder full of modest files. However, if speed isn't a concern for you when saving things to the drive, it offers a great cost for a reliable way to save your files and access them fairly quickly when you need to.
The SanDisk Ultra CZ48 32GB packs a lot into a small price tag.
Credit: Max Mutter
$15 at Amazon
Max write/read speeds: 45/312 MB/s | Available sizes (GB): 32, 64, 128, 256REASONS TO BUY
Good overall speed
Impressive read speeds
Slim and durable design
REASONS TO AVOID
Not quite as sleek as other keychain models
45/312 MB/s |32, 64, 128, 256
The Samsung Bar Plus 128GB perfectly fills the keychain niche for those moments when it just pays to have a USB flash drive on hand. The all-metal construction is super sturdy, and the relatively sleek design allows it to nestle onto even crowded keyrings. It is still long enough to insert it into a USB port without removing it from the keyring. It also provides good overall speed — in our tests, it wrote a 5GB folder with lots of small files in less than 4 minutes. Its read speeds are particularly impressive, meaning you can quickly access files stored on the drive. This makes the Samsung Bar Plus the perfect option for files that you don't want taking up space on your laptop's hard drive, but that you may need to access at a moment's notice.
Our biggest issue with the Samsung Bar Plus 128GB is the hump on the drive's back, where the keyring is attached. While these extra curves lend the drive even more of a space-age feel, they also make it bulkier and less sleek than some other keychain-oriented models. However, the Samsung Bar Plus's speed and performance so far outstrips that of its competitors that it still easily gets our top recommendation for those who prefer to attach a USB flash drive to their keychain permanently.
The sleek Samsung Bar Plus 128GB is the perfect keychain accessory.
Credit: Max Mutter
$48 at Amazon
Max write/read speeds: 249/415 MB/s | Available sizes (GB): 128, 256, 512, 10000REASONS TO BUY
Extremely fast write and read speeds
High quality, all-metal build
Protective cover for USB connector
REASONS TO AVOID
Expensive
Product Updated — June 2023
The PNY Pro Elite V2 USB 3.2 is available for purchase now. Our affiliate link points to that version.
249/415 MB/s |128, 256, 512, 10000 PNY Pro Elite 256GB . This model is also great for editing photos and videos without moving them onto your computer. It's crazy fast — it wrote our 5GB speed torture test folder in just 2 minutes, a mere fraction of what it took most drives. It also gobbled up a 5GB movie file in only 20 seconds, and the read speeds are even faster. This blazing speed is backed up by a stylish and durable all-metal build. It is one of the few full-sized flash drives that we are confident could survive the wear and tear of living on a keychain.
The PNY Pro Elite 256GB is considerably pricier than most flash drives on the market. However, the extra speed it affords is worth the investment if you're the type who continually moves large files around.
The PNY Pro Elite is the best choice for more demanding users.
Credit: Max Mutter
$16 at Amazon
Max write/read speeds: 47/156 MB/s | Available sizes (GB): 16, 32, 64,128, 256REASONS TO BUY
USB Type-A and Type-C compatibility
Good transfer speeds
Both connectors retract into protective sheath
Convenient app for use with phones
REASONS TO AVOID
Write speeds for lots of small files can be slow
No easy keychain/lanyard attachment
47/156 MB/s |16, 32, 64,128, 256
Now that many popular laptops and newer Android phones are moving to USB-C, it can be super convenient to have a flash drive compatible with this new port as well as the common USB-A. The only USB flash drive we have found that hits the mark in this regard is the SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive 128GB. Both connectors can be retracted at the same time, allowing it to maintain a slim profile. If you use the drive with a phone, SanDisk provides a convenient app that will enable you to do manual backups by specific file type. Additionally, the Ultra Dual Drive is much faster than other Type-A/Type-C drives that we've tested.
While this drive provides at least average speed for most file transfers, it can sometimes get bogged down when writing many small files. It took 26 minutes to write our 5GB small file testing folder. We also found the lanyard attachment annoying. It sits in the center of the drive body, is too small for a keyring, and requires a master seamstress's skills to thread. Despite these small drawbacks, for those that want both USB Type-A and Type-C connectivity, the SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive is the best option available.
The SanDisk Ultra Dual seamlessly switches from USB-A to USB-C.
Credit: Max Mutter
REASONS TO BUY
Great overall speed
Blazing read speeds
Tiny form factor
REASONS TO AVOID
Hard to use on a keychain
70/356 MB/s |32, 64, 128, 256
If you need a super slim and portable thumbnail-style drive, the Samsung Fit Plus 128GB is sure to please. Despite its small stature, it was one of the fastest drives we tested, writing our 5GB testing folder in less than 4 minutes. Perhaps more importantly, its read speeds are phenomenal — it read that same folder in a mere 41 seconds. This makes it the perfect tiny drive to use as a secondary storage option for your laptop, allowing you to access all of its files with nary a lag. Plus, it provides all this impressive performance at a relatively average price.
The one aspect we wish was slightly different is the design of the keychain attachment point. It is slim enough that most keyrings get clamped down, forcing the drive to sit at a 90˚ angle. This negates the small footprint and makes it very difficult to use without removing it from the keyring. A lanyard would mitigate this problem, yet we found even thin lanyards hard to thread. We wish it were easier to attach this drive to an object since its small size makes it easier to lose. Still, we feel the Samsung Fit Plus 128GB is the best option for fans of the extreme portability of super tiny thumbnail drives.
The super-fast Samsung Fit Plus 128GB is great for expanding your laptop's storage.
Credit: Max Mutter
REASONS TO BUY
Inexpensive
Reliable
USB connector retracts for protection
REASONS TO AVOID
Relatively slow
20/34 MB/s |16, 32, 64, 128, 256
A good option for anyone looking for a lot of digital storage on the cheap is the classic SanDisk Cruzer CZ36 128GB. In many instances, this drive costs half as much as other models of the same capacity. Perhaps most importantly, it provided consistent and reliable performance in our testing. We have run into many budget drives that fail in the middle of long file transfers, but the Cruzer CZ36 completed every task we asked of it — even if it took a little longer than some other models. The USB connector retracts and clicks solidly into place when extended, making it easy to slide into ports.
Speed is the biggest shortcoming of the Cruzer CZ36. Of the drives that receive our stamp of approval, it is one of the slowest. When we wrote a 5GB folder of many small files to this drive — the biggest speed challenge for any drive — it took 15 minutes to complete. While certainly not blazing, this speed is still tolerable for occasional file backups. It is an excellent choice for those who want to increase their important files' redundancy without spending a bunch of money.
It's hard to beat the SanDisk Cruzer CZ36 when it comes to gigabytes-per-dollar.
Credit: Max Mutter
REASONS TO BUY
Very inexpensive
Reliable
Protective cover for USB connector
REASONS TO AVOID
Relatively slow
Construction feels less durable
25/106 MB/s |32, 64, 128, 256
The PNY Turbo 64GB provided very reliable, if somewhat slow, file transfers throughout our testing. It also has a protective cover that slides over the USB connector, a feature that many of the other budget options on the market lack. We found the slim profile to be fairly unobtrusive when hung from a keychain.
The diminished speed is the apparent downside of the PNY Turbo 64GB. It took this drive a whopping 51 minutes to write our 5GB test folder filled with small files. It was much faster in writing a single 5GB video file, taking just over 3 minutes, but that was still toward the back of the pack. Suffice it to say, this drive isn't for people who regularly transfer large amounts of data via flash drives. However, the PNY Turbo 64GB is a good choice at a reasonable price if you just want a model that you know will work for the odd times that you need it.
We found the PNY Turbo 64GB to be the best of the lower cost drives on the market.
Credit: Max Mutter
REASONS TO BUY
Good overall speed
Super small form factor
REASONS TO AVOID
Can be hard to remove from ports
Lanyard attachment too small for a keyring
47/135 MB/s |16, 32, 64,128, 256
The SanDisk Ultra Fit CZ43 256GB is a classic thumbnail-style drive that offers good write/read speeds in a tiny package. Though not the fastest thumbnail-style model we have tested, we found its speeds acceptable enough for working with both large media files and folders filled with word documents and spreadsheets. Perhaps most importantly, its read speeds are quite good, so you shouldn't notice lagging if you leave it plugged into your laptop all day as secondary storage for important files.
Our least favorite aspect of using the Ultra Fit CZ43 256GB is removing it from USB ports. It fits quite snugly, and the small and somewhat slick plastic body provides little purchase. The lanyard attachment slot is also too small to accommodate most keyrings. Still, for those seeking a super small thumbnail-style flash drive, the SanDisk Ultra Fit CZ43 delivers an excellent overall experience.
The SanDisk Ultra Fit CZ43 256GB provides solid all-around performance in a very small package.
Credit: Max Mutter
Lead author and tester Max Mutter is no stranger to USB flash drive data transfers. In his years as a nomadic ecologist, he carried giant data sets stored on multiple flash drives between different remote research stations. At these stations, he often constructed intricate spatial statistical models using that data on outdated computers — a tenuous situation where a slow flash drive can grind everything to a halt. Spending weeks or months in remote locales far from the reaches of the internet turns a flash drive full of your favorite movies into an essential commodity. In the last few years as a Senior Editor for GearLab, Max has transferred and edited terabytes of testing footage from camera drones, security cameras, and dash cams using a multitude of flash drives.
To start this review, we researched over 100 USB flash drives before purchasing the most promising models on the market. We then ran a plethora of real-world speed tests using large media files, folders full of songs and photos, and folders stuffed with word documents and spreadsheets. We also spent time assessing each drive's construction, determining how well they would stand up to wear and tear, and evaluating the quality of any sliding mechanisms or swivels. In the end, we whittled the list down to only the top drives we would recommend for a variety of specific use cases.
Credit: Max Mutter
Most of our USB flash drive tests focused on write and read (upload and download) speeds. Our three tests utilized different file types and sizes to assess speed. We also ranked the overall user-friendliness of each drive, meticulously evaluating their construction, how well they fit on a keychain, and how easily they slide into and out of USB ports.
We conducted three separate speed tests: a large file transfer test, a small file transfer test, and a video streaming test.
The PY Pro Elite (below) is one of the fastest drives on the market. The SanDisk Extreme Go (above) also provided fast file transfers in our tests.
Credit: Max Mutter
A common use for flash drives is backing up or transferring movie or music collections. We tested each drive's speed in transferring these larger files by writing (saving to the drive) and reading (transferring from the drive) a 5 gigabyte (GB) HD movie file, timing the process. From there, we were able to calculate the exact upload and download speed in megabytes per second (MB/s). Large individual files are generally the easiest for drives to transfer, so these speeds represent the best you can expect from each drive.
Posting field-leading write and read speeds of 249 MB/s and 415 MB/s, respectively, the PNY Pro Elite 256GB was the clear winner in our large file speed tests. The SanDisk Extreme GO 64GB was the only model that could get close to the PNY Pro Elite's write speeds, hitting a pace of 161 MB/s. However, its write speeds were about half as fast at 208 MB/s.
Though the Samsung Fit Plus 128GB displayed average write speeds in our large file test at 70 MB/s, it showed impressive reading performance, benchmarking an average rate of 356 MB/s. The Samsung Bar Plus 128GB offered similarly fast read speeds, making both models great portable options for storing movie collections.
Reading and writing lots of small files is a much different task than doing so with large files, so we tested this ability separately. We constructed a 5GB folder jam-packed with a mix of photos, some songs, and lots of spreadsheets and word documents, and timed transferring that folder to and from each flash drive. Transferring thousands of small files at once can bog down even the best of flash drives, so the results of this torture test are likely the worst speeds you can expect from each drive.
Also dominating our small file transfer tests, the PNY Pro Elite 256GB wrote at an average of 37 MB/s and reading at 133 MB/s. Both Samsung models stood out in this test as well, achieving write speeds in the mid-20s and read speeds in excess of 100 MB/s.
The SanDisk Extreme Go 64GB hit well above average speeds in this test, achieving 12 MB/s write speeds and 77 MB/s read speeds.
If we could plug a drive into a computer and watch a full 1080p HD movie stored on the drive without any lagging or dropped frames, the drive passed. This is a vital ability for those that like to keep their movie collection stored on a flash drive but don't want to have to download those movies to their computer every time an opportunity for movie night arises.
Luckily all of the models we tested passed, allowing us to watch and even fast forward an HD movie with no lagging. The PNY Turbo technically passed this test, but it takes 10-15 seconds before it will display a movie file. Once that initial lag elapses, however, it is flawless.
We spent days using each one of our flash drives, carrying them on our keychains, plugging and unplugging them into multiple devices and USB ports, and extending and retracting their USB connectors.
The Samsung Fit Plus 128GB offers the best balance of portability and durability of all the models we tested, thanks to a super slim profile and sturdy construction. However, it lacks an easy keychain attachment. The Samsung Bar Plus 128GB is slightly bulkier, but it is just as durable and is designed to be carried on a keychain.
Though not the smallest of the keychain models, the phenomenal speeds of the Samsung Bar Plus makes it our favorite.
Credit: Max Mutter
The SanDisk Ultra Fit CZ43 256GB is a bit difficult to detach from a USB port, but it is super small. It isn't a dealbreaker for us, but it could be annoying if you need to switch out your USB flash drives between devices regularly.
The SanDisk Extreme GO 64GB has one of the smoothest and sturdiest sliding mechanisms for extending and retracting its USB connector. It's plastic, but it still maintains one of the most solid constructions of any device of its type.
Despite being so much smaller than the average drive, the Samsung Fit Plus is impressively fast.
Credit: Max Mutter
The SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive 128GB is the most convenient option for those that want both USB Type-A and Type-C functionality. A smooth sliding mechanism allows you to access either connector easily, and both can be retracted inside the protective metal and plastic body. Our only complaint is that the lanyard attachment hole is extremely small to the point of being useless (we were never able to thread it successfully).
Though USB drives may seem to be a dime a dozen, some models offer far superior speeds and features than their competitors. We hope our objective testing results have helped you find a flash drive that will serve you well and become an everyday accessory. In addition, we have tested the best USB hubs that accept a wide array of USB drives, USB-C cables, microSD cards, and more.