Is Storage Sexy Now? Sandisk Portable Drive Review

Let’s be honest: storage devices are not the most sexy tech products around. More necessity than a desire, hard drives can often be a grudge purchase when you’ve pushed your cloud storage options to the absolute limit. However, when it comes to Sandisk’s range of ultra-portable options, your mind might change.

The company’s 500GB portable drive is one of the most petite and sleek-looking pieces of tech on the market currently. Measuring in at only 7.5cm in length and 4.5cm in width (and only about 1cm thick), it’s about the size of an electronic car fob, albeit thinner. It also weighs in at only 31 grams, making it barely noticeable in the palm of your hand.

While modern storage devices have been around for a while, the streamlined design and soft, edgeless design just make this look more like a key for a Ferrari than a piece of hardware.

The shell, which has a really nice textured, graphite-like feel, also includes a small hole to hook onto your keys, a lanyard, or a string to keep closer tabs on it, because it is small and could disappear.

This ultra-modernistic design also applies to the internal bits, as the small drive features solid state flash memory, making it extremely fast, durable, and can survive small bumps and drops (up to 2 metres), unlike older mechanical hard drives, which can break by just being looked at hard enough.

It’s also connected via USB-C, which has pros and cons. It only comes with a USB-C to USB-C cable, so if you don’t have a USB-C drive on your computer, you’ll need to use a USB-C to USB cable, which is fine, but you’ll need one. On the other hand, the USB-C connectivity allows it to be plugged straight into your smartphone, which I think is the absolute game-changer.

Getting media or documents off of my phone has always been a hassle – either having to upload it to a cloud drive or WhatsApp myself and access it via a different device (we’ve all done this). Having the ability to just plug a hard drive straight into my phone and move things for safekeeping is awesome. It’s also super quick, able to transfer 600 mb/s.

The Sandisk Portable Drive is one of those things I didn’t think I needed until I got one. Now it’s as interwoven into my day as my smartphone or wallet is. Having the ability to back up on a whim, transfer items, or access larger files that don’t clog up your phone without carrying around a cumbersome and delicate hard drive feels like a superpower.

There are 5000GB and 1TB options, and if you’re a creator, editing videos, or just need to constantly move stuff between your phone, PC, and other devices, it’s a no-brainer, especially given the fact that cloud storage platforms are starting to clamp down on the space and push the prices up.

The Sandisk Portable Drive (500GB) is priced at R2,659.