While USB 2 offers max transfer speed around 480 Mbps, USB 3.0 supports up to 5 Gbps. Transfer speed between USB 2, 3.0, and 3.1. These drives can be used even with Apple Time Machine, which is known for its demands for read/write speed requirements.īesides, the actual flash drive performance, don’t forget toĬheck which USB type the device supports. However, I was able to find out several gadgets with almost SSD like performance. We all know that flash drives are slow, sometimes painfully slow when we try to copy large files. The speed with which a USB drive reads and writes data is what makes people choose external hard drives over the convenience of thumb drives. Read about the Mac file formats in the Apple Compatibility section below. However, you must know that not all file formats can support such huge volumes. Nowadays, the capacity of modern thumb drives can exceed 1TB (almost 8,000 times more storage than in the early days). I remember the days when the most you could get is a stick Other things to consider in thumb drives if their ability toīe waterproof, shockproof, or dustproof. On the market for decades, here is the list (not complete) of companies which If you are not familiar with which manufacturers have been That brands matter when reliability is the most important factor in choosing a If you get anything from this article, I want to remind you Same time, good drives get a couple of hundreds of reviews, and the average is I’ve seen several thousands of 5-star reviews on noname devices, and at the If Amazon is your choice when it comes to purchasingĪnything online, be aware that not all user reviews are real. In my opinion, devices produced by well known establishedĬompanies have lower failure rates compared to drives from unknown While nobody can guarantee that a particular device will beįail-free, there is a difference in failure rate between quality drives andĬheap knockoffs. If the drive fails when you need it, then it’s not worth even Itĭoesn’t matter how fast the drive is, how cool it looks, or how cheap you can Thumb drives, but the main factor in selection is always reliability. There are certain qualities that I look for when considering When choosing the right USB flash drive, pay attention to the following factors: Budget Pick: Patriot Supersonic Rage Elite.Best USB-C Flash Drive for Mac: Samung Duo Plus.Best Overall: Corsair Flash Voyager GTX.Thumb drives are still helpful when there is a need to quickly extend available storage, which is a common problem for MacBooks Pro and Air. They are small, and people used them to share data long before we had cloud storage options. Undeniably, flash drives are very popular types of storage for Macs. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Full Disclosure Here…ĭisclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

Usb drive that works with mac and pc