Guide

Purchasing advice for USB sticks: data storage devices for your pocket

13.1.2020

Translation: machine translated

Although data can be easily transferred via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or cloud services, USB sticks still have a right to exist. Which models are available and how to find the right memory stick for you.

What are USB sticks good for? When our network printer in the office is offline, I can still print documents from a USB stick. There are enough people among my friends and relatives that I'd rather hand them a USB stick with photos than convince them to use Dropbox and the like. They are also usually cheaper than external hard drives.

General tips for USB sticks

The most important criterion for your USB stick is the connector. You can choose between the classic USB type A, the modern USB type C and micro USB memory sticks. At the moment, USB type A is probably still the most widespread, but USB-C is catching up and is becoming increasingly important. If you want to be flexible, there are also memory sticks with both connections. With such a stick, you are on the safe side until USB-C becomes the sole standard. Micro-USB only plays a role in smartphones - and in fewer and fewer models.

Also important: the capacity of the memory stick. If you only need it to carry a few files around, 32 or even just 16 gigabytes are completely sufficient. If you want to back up data or increase the storage capacity of your notebook, you will of course need more capacity. I would recommend at least 256 gigabytes. After all, you have to keep up with the hard drive.

If you want to transfer large amounts of data to and from your USB stick or plan to use it as a permanent storage extension, the transfer speed is important. Although it also depends on the computer's USB port, you can at least ensure optimum conditions for the USB stick. The biggest differences in speed are found in memory sticks with USB-A ports. USB 2.0 is significantly slower here - theoretically 480 Mbit/s to 5 Gbit/s, although in practice no stick utilises these values to the maximum. I would still make sure to get a stick with USB 3.1 Gen 1, even if it costs a little more and doesn't reach the theoretically possible speed, it will most likely be faster. USB-C sticks are always at least USB 3.1 Gen 1.

Some memory sticks are available with different capacities and it is not only here that it becomes clear that more memory also costs more. However, I would only use the price per gigabyte as the last criterion when making a purchase decision. More important is the shape and size of the USB stick. This becomes relevant, for example, if the memory stick has to fit in with many other devices at the ports on the back of your PC or if you want to leave it permanently inserted in your notebook. Then, of course, it should protrude as little as possible from the socket.

USB sticks for the computer

When it comes to USB sticks for use on the computer, I recommend models with USB 3.1. This includes those with USB 3.0. These are significantly faster than those with USB 2.0. The standard was renamed USB 3.1 Gen 1 after its introduction and some sticks have kept the old name.

Purchasing advice for USB sticks: data storage devices for your pocket

General tips for USB sticks

USB sticks for the computer

Memory sticks for the smartphone

Sandisk iXpand Flash Drive Go tested: A memory stick for the iPhone

Especially robust USB sticks

Encrypted USB sticks

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