14 DAY TRIAL // You would think that, after all this time and with USB 3.1 having finally been released, makers of peripherals and storage devices have finally set aside USB 2.0. Alas, based on products like the new flash drives from PNY, this is not the case.
It's all because of the USB On-the-Go technology. It allows a flash drive to treat a smartphone, or any Android device like a tablet, as if it were a host PC.
This wouldn't normally have any bearing on what USB specification is implemented, but the USB OTG functionality needs a micro-USB port.
Micro-USB 3.0 connectors are rare, to say the least. Because of that, almost all USB OTG flash drives have stuck to the very slow Hi-Speed interface standard.
In a way, it is odd that USB 2.0 is considered very slow nowadays. The technology was given the name Hi-Speed because it brought transfer rates up from 1.5 Mbps (USB 1.1) to 480 Mbps. An improvement of 40 times.
For years, however, USB 3.0 has eclipsed USB 2.0, thanks to its transfer speed of 5 Gbps. It is “only” ten times better than the previous iteration, but still far superior.
The USB 2.0's position is not made any better by the fact that USB 3.0 sells for the exact same amount of cash at this point.
Alas, the concept of micro-USB 3.0 ports is one that pretty much everyone seems to shy away from for some reason. Because of that, even with 10 Gbps USB 3.1 out and about, flash drives with USB 2.0 ports get released every week.
Which brings us to the PNY Duo-Link OTG USB Flash Drive. It is a small storage device with one small, micro-USB port and a full-sized one. It is capless, but has a cover that can swing around and conceal one or the other connector.
As is usual for USB OTG devices, the newcomer is meant to allow easy transfer of information between a PC and an Android phone. You know, in case you don't have a data cable or have to hand the information to someone else at school or wherever else.
The Duo-Link OTG USB Flash Drive comes in 16 GB and 32 GB capacities, but measures 30 x 10 x 5 mm / 1.18 x 0.39 x 0.19 inches regardless. It should go up for sale soon, if it hasn't already, for an unspecified price. Don't worry though. The tag won't be far apart from that of every other USB OTG flash drive of similar capacities.