Western Digital and SanDisk sent through their SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive Luxe USB Type-C Flash Drive to us to check out and while it might seem a tad strange to be reviewing a USB flash drive, there’s reason for our madness.

So what exactly makes the SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive Luxe USB Type-C Flash Drive worth purchasing and is it a good product? Before I get into that, let’s take a look at the technical specifications:

Features

- The 2-in-1 flash drive with reversible USB Type-C and Type-A connectors
- Seamlessly move content between compatible smartphones, tablets, and computers
- Dual-purpose swivel design helps protects connectors and features a keyring hole to take your drive on the go

Capacity - 128GB

Connector
- USB-A
- USB-C

Compatibility
- USB Type-C devices (phones, laptops, and tablets)
- iOS 10.0.2+
- Android 11+
- macOS v.10.9+
- Windows 10+

Sequential Read Performance - 400MB/s
Interface: USB 3.2 Gen 1
In The Box: SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive Luxe USB Type-C Flash Drive
Warranty: 5-Year Limited Warranty
Dimensions (L x W x H): 1.75" x 0.48" x 0.34"
Weight: 12.2gms
Model Number: SDDDC4-128G-G46GD
Operating Temperature: 0°C to 35°C
Non-Operating Temperature: 10°C to 70°C
Certifications: FCC, ICES, CE, UKCA, BSMI, RCM, EAC, KCC, Ukraine

The SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive Luxe USB Type-C Flash Drive is an affordable “On-The-Go” or OTG flash drive which has quite an innovative design combining both both a USB Type-A connector with a USB Type-C on one single device. This means that you can simply plug the Type-C connector into your phone or compatible USB Type-C device, transfer files to the drive and then plug it into your PC or laptop and transfer the files off in no time flat (or vice versa).



The sequential read performance of the SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive Luxe is rated at 400 MB/s but of course, no review would be complete without some real-world testing and benchmarking. To do this, I transferred 20 high resolution photos to the drive from my phone (Around 138 MB), which was instantly completed as soon as I pressed transfer. I then unplugged the drive, plugged it into the Type-C port of my PC and copied them over. Both transfers were completed immediately with no waiting at all. Using the drive for its intended purpose in transferring photos or smaller files is therefore excellent.

The SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive Luxe USB Type-C Flash Drive is an affordable “On-The-Go” or OTG flash drive which has quite an innovative design combining both both a USB Type-A connector with a USB Type-C on one single device.

To test the device’s performance with larger files, I copied a 2.5 GB video file to the drive which took around 45 seconds with peak transfer speeds maxing out at 91.6 MB/s within 15 seconds before dropping down. This indicates that the drive’s cache was full and the speeds fluctuated between 20 and 90 MB/s until the transfer completed. Overall it was still smooth sailing and I was quite impressed with the transfer speeds, especially for a USB drive.

To test this further, I used the good old CrystalDisk Mark 8.04 Shizuku Edition to do some read/write testing. The following results were obtained from running this benchmark:



The SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive Luxe performed way better than I expected in the benchmark test and the sequential read speeds exceeded its claimed 400 MB/s which is fantastic. The write speed also exceeded the high reached during my large file size transfer and the results above indicate that the drive is performing amazingly well. Kudos to SanDisk for creating such a great product in terms of performance.

If you’re wondering why the “RND4K” write speeds show up as 0.00, that’s due to the fact that USB flash drives aren’t designed with large random write in mind and this is a limitation of the hardware architecture itself. The write speeds for a much smaller file size were as follows.



The device performed almost exactly the same when used in a Type-A USB 3.2 port too. One additional minor issue I noted with testing transfers with the device was the fact that it got rather warm when doing large file transfers. You may want to copy over smaller batches of files to the device in shorter periods to avoid this issue if it concerns you. Given how fast files transfer though, this shouldn’t be too much of a problem.



Therefore when it comes to overall performance the SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive Luxe is an excellent product for its intended use as a portable drive to transfer files on the go from your laptop to phone/tablet and the other way around without much hassle.



Moving on to the physical aspects of the drive, the SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive Luxe looks great. The gold sheen to it screams premium and the drive itself is very sleek and compact. This can easily be attached to a keychain or a lanyard and the build quality feels sturdy. One thing that does concern me though is the swivel design which allows you to change between having the Type-C and Type-A connector covered. Over time this swivel will definitely weaken and break because it’s rather flimsy and if you’re too rough with it, it’s not going to hold up for long. Your mileage may vary based on how you treat the drive.



Weighing in at just 12.2 grams, the SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive Luxe is far lighter and a lot more compact than traditional OTG drives and this is a major plus point. Older OTGs used to have strange designs which would look terrible dangling off your phone or tablet but thankfully since the SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive Luxe is so tiny, it doesn’t get in the way or look atrocious when plugged into your devices. Aesthetically, it’s a very pleasing to look at drive and if gold is not your colour, the drive is available in other colours too.

The SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive Luxe Type-C Flash Drive is an excellent product that serves its intended purpose as an OTG, hassle free device for quick and efficient storage and transfer of files. The swivel design isn’t exactly the best but that’s not a major issue if you take good care of the product and aren’t rough with it. If you’re looking for affordable storage (and need a USB Flash Drive that can transfer files blisteringly fast between phones/tablets and PCs without additional cables and stress, this is it. At roughly $22 at the time of writing for the gold 128 GB version, it gets a solid recommendation from me.