5 USB-C Flash Drives That Are Fast, Reliable, And Worth The Price

One technology that's had a significant impact on our computing lives over the past 20 years has been the rise of solid-state flash storage, to the point that it's pushed mechanical hard drives to the fringes of the most data-hungry environments. With no moving parts plus data transfer speeds blowing away the peak performance of mechanical hard drives, inexpensive solid-state storage played a role in the rise of the smartphone, notebooks moving towards much more efficient CPUs while the SSD greatly increases the perceived speed, and extreme data portability via SD cards and thumb drives.

An SSD's performance is limited by its interface, though, which is why PCI Express connections for SSDs have supplanted SATA in many cases. The most popular external I/O connection, USB, has its own limitations, so when buying a USB flash drive, you want one that makes the most of the higher speeds offered by the latest USB revisions, many of which leverage the newer USB Type-C connector that's now universal on smartphones and increasingly common on desktop and notebook computers. Fewer thumb drives have USB-C than you'd expect, though, so as a decades-long thumb drive user, let's examine five of the best-reviewed USB-C iterations.

For the purposes of this list, we're only including thumb drives and only those that have a built-in USB Type-C connector — either singular or multi-plug — as opposed to those requiring a Type-A to Type-C adapter. Drives classified more so as "portable SSDs" requiring a USB Type-C cable were not considered.

A longtime reliable brand in the world of flash storage is Kingston, and one of the best current options for a thumb drive, especially one with USB Type-C, is the DataTraveler Max. It retails at $37.99 for 256GB, $67.99 for 512GB, and $119.99 for 1TB, though you can generally find much better prices at stores like Amazon. Kingston touts the DataTraveler Max Type-C as having up to 1,000MB per second read speeds and 900MB per second write speeds, which is pretty impressive for a thumb drive. It also includes a few other bells and whistles in the form of a keyring loop, an LED status indicator, and a five-year warranty.

Professional reviews of the Kingston DataTraveler Max Type-C have been very positive. TechRadar rated it a perfect five stars, citing its fair price and standout performance as key points in its favor. The review also notes that its speeds are such that it's competitive with drives that are marketed as portable SSDs as opposed to thumb drives, the kind that requires a separate USB cable instead of being an all-in-one unit. And in four different benchmark tests, the transfer speeds were roughly as advertised each time. Storage Review, 9to5Mac, and AnandTech also had similar plaudits for the drive, while AnandTech also reviewed the USB Type-A version to test Kingston's claims that the two versions perform equally. What's the answer? They don't, with the Type-A SKU being limited by its firmware and thus having inferior read speeds.

One option with both USB Type-C and USB Type-A connectors is the Sandisk Dual Drive Go, another entry from a venerable player in the world of flash storage. It retails at $17.49 for 64GB, $23.99 for 128GB, 256GB for $35.49, 512GB for $58.99, and 1TB for $119.99, though you can get significant discounts at stores like Best Buy. (You can also pick up the 128GB and 256GB versions at Amazon.) It carries a five-year warranty, and in promotional copy, Sandisk touts it as having read speeds of up to 400MB per second. 

The Dual Drive Go appears on the recommended thumb drive lists of various major tech publications, but the only professional review we could find for the current version — as opposed to slower, older versions — is from Dutch website Cool Suggesties. That site rated the Dual Drive Go an eight out of 10 but otherwise didn't get too in-depth. As far as recommendations in listicles go, Popular Mechanics named it the best thumb drive with a two-in-one combination USB Type-C and USB Type-A connector, singling out said connector and the 400MB per second read speeds as strong positives. Wired also had some positive words for the Dual Drive Go, albeit with the caveat that the 64MB model is slower, with USB 3.1 speeds instead of the USB 3.2 Gen 1 spec that allows the other capacities to achieve read speeds of 400MB per second. As cheaper drives go, it looks like a solid pick.

One drive that promises great data transfer speeds at an attractive price is Silicon Power's DS72, which Amazon has in stock at  $44.99 for 500 GB and $109.99 for 2TB. This thumb drive sports a USB connector on each end under a flip cap, with USB Type-C on one side and USB Type-A on the other. Its promotional copy promises read speeds of 1,050MB per second and write speeds of 850MB per second over USB 3.2 Gen 2, plus a five-year limited warranty and some kind of shock resistance. (Silicon Power's own product page and product data sheet don't add any insight into the shock resistance, like how high the DS72 has been drop tested from, just touting its aluminum and rubber construction.)

The available professional reviews and benchmark tests for the DS72 are very positive, and they find that it lives up to the advertised speeds. Dong Knows Tech scored it an eight out of 10, singling out how the design handles the two connectors, the "excellent" performance, low price, and five-year warranty as strong positive attributes. Mad Shrimps also liked the DS72 a lot and awarded it a Performance Recommendation badge, praising the lack of a need for a dongle regardless of what kind of USB port your computer has, its thermal performance with the drive not getting particularly hot during large transfers, and its performance. On that last point, they noted that the drive still performed relatively well even when its cache was full.

Another quality option featuring both USB Type-C and USB Type-A connectors, this time with removable caps on opposite sides of the thumb drive, is the Transcend ESD310C. The claimed data transfer speeds are comparable to the other high-speed drives on this list, with read speeds up to 1,050MB per second and write speeds up to 950MB per second. Amazon has this one available at 256GB for $29.99, 512GB for $54.99, 1TB for a retail price of $115.90 while usually carrying a sale price of about $90 to $100, and 2TB for $158.99. Like much of the competition, it carries a five-year limited warranty. Transcend describes the aluminum casing as "sturdy" without giving any details as to whether the drive has undergone drop testing. 

The available professional reviews of the Transcend ESD310C are excellent. AnandTech liked it a lot, with benchmarks showing that the drive lived up to its advertised speeds, though it did slow down significantly when transferring hundreds of gigabytes at a time, making it a better choice for more casual users as opposed to power users. Back2Gaming, meanwhile, scored it an 8.7 out of 10, praising the double connector interface, small size, and lack of cables, but wasn't crazy about the removable caps. TweakTown scored it 97% while also giving it a "Must Have Editor's Choice Award," concluding "Best of its kind. Enough said." while echoing the other reviews' plaudits and praising the use of their favorite controller, the Silicon Motion 2320.

If you're a power user looking for a USB Type-C thumb drive that can keep pace while copying hundreds of gigabytes of data in one shot, then the OWC Envoy Pro Mini is for you. At Amazon, they have the 500GB SKU for $94.99, 1TB for $149.99, and 2TB for $250.00. Though it promises comparable speeds to the other top performers, listing read and write speeds of 946MB per second, OWC also touts that the Envoy Pro Mini is specifically designed for high-performance use cases. More specifically, it advertises "a heat-dissipating machined aluminum housing" keeping the drive cool and "a full-fledged high-performance SSD that delivers the performance, reliability, and longevity." The drive carries a three-year limited warranty while touting a lifetime of "60TB total bytes written (TBW), equal to 33 GB per day for 5 years."

Professional reviews for the Envoy Pro Mini are unusually common for a thumb drive, and they're uniformly positive. AnandTech praised it, noting that its consistency during larger transfers made it worth the premium price for the right user. TechRadar scored it 4.5 stars out of five and gave it a "TechRadar Pro Highly Recommended" badge, singling out the small size, high compatibility, and performance as key positives. Cult of Mac backed up the praise for its performance during extended write sessions, while 9to5Toys felt it was among the best in its price range. Trending Tech Network scored it an 8.5 out of 10, praising the performance and durability.