Most Chromebooks don’t tend to have a lot of storage. These devices tend to be affordable and use solid state drives (unless you get an Acer C710). These laptops’s internal storage range from 16 to 64 GB. This may not be enough for all your content and many of you will have to resort to external storage to make ends meet.
With this in mind, we have to consider what the best options for external storage are. We could use an SD card (or micro SD with adapter), but those are very fragile and easy to lose, in my opinion. We could use an external hard drive, but then those are too bulky and hard to carry around. Even if they do offer the most bang for your buck.
I believe the best option for carrying songs and media is to use a nice USB flash drive. You can purchase storage sizes based on your needs and they are not too expensive. Not to mention, they tend to be much more solid than SD cards and offer great portability. And if you get a USB 3.0 one, you also get blazing speeds!
Here are some of my favorite ones:
SanDisk Ultra Dual USB Drive
SanDisk has just announced the Ultra Dual USB Drive, a device that offers portability and flexibility for a fair price. What makes it special? This is actually unlike any other USB flash drive out there. It was just announced by the manufacturer and it is actually what inspired this article.
As Chromebook users, we tend to pair our Chrome OS laptops with our devices for the best usage combination. Though Chromebooks have data capabilities, most users would rather not pay for more data when they already have a smartphone around, right? The SanDisk Ultra Dual USB Drive allows you to better use your smartphone and Chromebook together.
This device has two USB connectors – microUSB and standard USB 2.0! This will make it amazingly simple to share and transfer files between your devices. One thing to consider is that iPhones (which many of you probably own) do not have microUSB ports, so this will not really be an option unless you want to deal with converters.
This will also be convenient if you have a huge music/photo/video library. These files take a lot of space, which smartphones and Chromebooks don’t tend to enjoy much of. You could carry one of these and just plug in your SanDisk Ultra Dual USB Drive to whichever device you want to consume your media from!
The SanDisk Ultra Dual USB Drive costs $19.99-$49.99 depending on storage space. It’s available in 16, 32 and 64 GB versions. You can get it straight from the Sandisk website. It’s not available at the time of this publication, but keep going back and you will be able to purchase it soon.
The most discrete USB flash drives
Many of you probably want a flash drive that you can just plug in and leave in your Chromebook forever. If you are simply looking to have more storage in your device, there are many USB devices that become almost unnoticeable once they are plugged into a computer! Here are my favorites:
SanDisk Cruzer Fit
This bad boy is really small and comes in a great variety of storage sizes! You will also love its affordable price points. The Cruzer Fits come in 4, 8, 16 and 32 GB versions, ranging from $8 to $19.50 on Amazon.
Leef Surge 2.0
This little guy is not very known, but it happens to be one of my favorite USB flash drives out there. It has a very nice, minimalistic look that will most likely make it unnoticeable when plugged into a laptop (or anywhere). It also comes in larger storage configurations compared to SanDisk’s solution.
This little guy is available in 16, 32 and 64 GB configurations, and comes in both black and white versions. Price ranges from $12.99 to $49.99 on Amazon.
I NEED SPEED!
The options above are great for portability and looks, but if what you want is performance you will need a USB 3.0 thumb drive. These come at a higher price and don’t tend to be small, but offer amazing transfer speeds!
My favorite (and I am not alone on this one) is the SanDisk Extreme USB 3.0 Flash Drive. This is one of the most popular USB 3.0 flash drives out there, offering speeds of up to 190 MB per second!
Most Chrome OS computers now come with at least one USB 3.0 port, so make sure you are using the right one if you get one of these. The SanDisk Extreme USB 3.0 Flash Drive is available in 16, 32 and 64 GB configurations. Amazon currently only has 32 and 64 GB ones, though, costing $39.95 and 73.95, respectively.
Wrap up
These happen to be my favorite USB flash drives, but what do you guys think of my list? Are there any others out there that you think are better? Let us know in the comments!
