Imation 2-in-1 Micro USB Flash drive Review

Imation2in1_1
Imation’s latest USB drive offers two USB connectors rather than one in an effort to appeal to tablet owners.

Imation 2-in-1 Micro USB Flash drive: On the plus side

USB Flash drives as a category are, if we’re being honest, rather boring. They’re largely just functional devices, and they’re not even something that attracts a premium price any more.
That’s been the case for a while, although in testing the Imation 2-in-1 Micro USB Flash drive, I’m reminded of the first USB Flash drive I ever tested, which you can read about here and then in retrospect here.
In order to make any flash drive stand out, then, you need a gimmick. Imation’s gimmick with the Imation 2-in-1 Micro USB Flash drive is that it’s double headed. One side is a standard USB 2.0 plug, while the other offers a microUSB plug.

The Thing With Two Heads (USB Edition)
The Thing With Two Heads (USB Edition)

The idea there is that if you just want an ordinary USB drive, you can use it that way, but if you wanted or needed to connect it up to devices that only have microUSB ports, including Android tablets and Windows 8 devices like the Toshiba Encore Tablet, it’s feasible to do so.
This means that as long as your device supports it, it’s feasible to expand your storage, even on sealed Android devices that don’t support other data extension formats such as microSD cards.
The design of the Imation 2-in-1 Micro USB Flash drive is also quite neat, because the microUSB connector swivels around; you can flip it to protect the connectors as well as get the drive recognised in either orientation, although logically not both at once.

Imation 2-in-1 Micro USB Flash drive: On the minus side

The Imation 2-in-1 Micro USB Flash drive is still just a USB 2.0 Flash drive, and that means you can pretty much guess at its performance characteristics.
These will vary by operating system and file type a little, but as an example, a 2.19GB movie file wrote to the Imation 2-in-1 Micro USB Flash drive at 4.56MB/s, and read from it at 17.6MB/s. That’s very much in line with what you could expect from any USB 2.0 device; it’s neither stellar nor terrible, but you can pick up USB 3.0 compatible flash drives relatively inexpensively these days if speed is vital to you.

Even the cheap one isn't that cheap.
Even the cheap one isn’t that cheap.

It’s also logically not compatible with any iOS devices. That’s not strictly Imation’s fault of course, and the company says it is working on iOS 2-in-1 drives, presumably with Lightning connectors at one end, but if you’re working in a mixed environment, a pure Wi-Fi play such as the Seagate Wireless Plus might be a better bet.

Imation 2-in-1 Micro USB Flash drive: Pricing

Imation sells the Imation 2-in-1 Micro USB Flash drive in 16, 32 and 64GB capacities with RRPs of $29.95/$49.95/$69.95 respectively.

Imation 2-in-1 Micro USB Flash drive: Fat Duck verdict

The pricing on the Imation 2-in-1 Micro USB Flash drive is undeniably a pain point. If you simply need a USB Flash drive, it’s ridiculously easy to get something cheaper than even the low-end 16GB unit without trying hard.

It also folds down into this "doesn't connect to anything" mode.
It also folds down into this “doesn’t connect to anything” mode.

That means it’s got to sell itself on the ability to connect up to Android and Windows tablets. This it manages well — for what it’s worth, I used the Imation 2-in-1 Micro USB Flash drive quite a bit for shuffling files onto the Toshiba Encore Tablet as well as Dell Venue I’m testing at the moment — but means it’s a real niche play.

1 thought on “Imation 2-in-1 Micro USB Flash drive Review”

  1. Hi, are you able to advise where I can purchase an Imation 2 in 1 Flash Drive 64GB. Been searching the net but no luck yet for the 64GB.

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