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We’ve updated this guide with new picks. Usb 3 Flash Drive
Even as cloud storage and wireless file transfers become more common, sometimes the best option for moving files is to put them on a USB flash drive. The cheapest drives can leave you waiting an agonizingly long time to transfer files—or worse, they can malfunction mid-transfer and leave you where you started.
After spending more than 60 hours testing seven recent USB flash drives and comparing them with dozens of previous models for our 2023 update, we’ve concluded that the Patriot Supersonic Rage Prime USB 3.2 Gen 2 (250 GB) is the flash drive to get.
The fastest drive we tested for transferring data to and from a computer, this model is well priced for the amount of storage space it offers. We prefer its retractable plug to an inevitably lost cap.
May be out of stock
This flash drive delivers fast, reliable performance in a solid casing. It’s perfect for people who don’t need as much storage and want a drive that can stand up to rougher handling.
Though we occasionally encountered lower speeds during heavy use of this drive, it's a good option if you need a USB-C drive that is usually very fast and offers a large amount of storage.
The fastest drive we tested for transferring data to and from a computer, this model is well priced for the amount of storage space it offers. We prefer its retractable plug to an inevitably lost cap.
May be out of stock
The Patriot Supersonic Rage Prime USB 3.2 Gen 2 (250 GB) was faster than most flash drives we tested for this guide, and it offers nearly twice as much storage as our runner-up for around the same price. It has a retractable head and can transfer at USB 3.2 Gen 2 rates, the current maximum transfer speed for USB drives. Patriot covers it with a limited five-year warranty.
This flash drive delivers fast, reliable performance in a solid casing. It’s perfect for people who don’t need as much storage and want a drive that can stand up to rougher handling.
SanDisk’s Extreme Pro USB 3.2 (128 GB) was our top pick in a previous version of this guide, and it remains a very good option. SanDisk renamed it from 3.1 to 3.2 to adjust to the ever-evolving USB standard, but it’s still the same solid, reliable performer we recommended previously. Though this drive is now a little expensive for the amount of storage it offers, its casing makes it more suited to travel and rough handling than the lighter Patriot drive, and it comes with a lifetime limited warranty.
Though we occasionally encountered lower speeds during heavy use of this drive, it's a good option if you need a USB-C drive that is usually very fast and offers a large amount of storage.
The Kingston DataTraveler Max Type-C (256 GB) offers fast speeds for smaller, less complex transfers, and in our tests it was more reliable than any of the other USB-C drives we tried. It didn’t perform as well on our more complex tests, and we sometimes encountered dips in performance after fully reformatting it a few times in a row, but if your devices have only USB-C ports and you don’t want to bother with a dongle, this flash drive provides plenty of speed and storage for general use.
Wirecutter’s PC team has researched and tested hundreds of USB flash drives since 2013. Updates writer Ivy Liscomb spent more than 60 hours researching, sorting, testing, and retesting all new USB drives for this guide on multiple devices and in multiple test scenarios.
Supervising editor Arthur Gies, who contributed to the previous version of this guide, has been covering consumer technology and PC hardware since 2009. Prior to his time at Wirecutter, he covered laptops and PC hardware for outlets such as PCWorld, IGN, Joystiq, and Polygon. He has owned hundreds of (mostly terrible) USB flash drives since 2003.
While cloud storage has become an increasingly popular option for sharing files and moving things from one computer to another, a USB flash drive, or thumb drive, often presents the fastest, easiest way to move a single large file or a large collection of many files. There’s no need for a fast internet connection, and you don’t have to fuss with a local Wi-Fi network or Bluetooth connection. The process is as simple as copying files to the thumb drive, disconnecting it, and moving it to another computer.
For moving or backing up especially large amounts of data—think terabytes—an external or portable hard drive makes more sense than a flash drive. For large amounts of data—think many hundreds of gigabytes—a portable SSD is more expensive but faster than a hard drive or any of our USB flash drive recommendations. But our picks for this guide all have at least 128 GB of storage, which should be more than enough space for most projects and additional files for most people. And flash drives usually provide faster speeds, often significantly faster, than what you can get from any external mechanical hard drive.
If you need a lot of storage that you can move around, an external hard drive is a no-brainer, and we have options for almost everyone.
USB 3.0, which now includes USB 3.1 and 3.2, has been the industry standard since 2013. At this point USB 2.0 thumb drives are very slow—often a tenth of the speed of USB 3.0 or 3.1 drives—and have far less capacity than modern devices. A USB 2.0 drive, if you find one, wouldn’t save you much, so don’t spend money on that kind.
Our picks for this guide offer performance that exceeds or at least matches the transfer speeds of slow, traditional platter-based hard drives. Unless you need the fastest possible external-storage speed and significantly more space, such as for video editing or other storage-intensive projects, you probably don’t need an external solid-state drive.
If you need a fast, reliable way to move files between computers, the Samsung T7 Shield (1 TB) is the portable solid-state drive for you.
For this guide, we considered the real-world advantages of the small differences in flash drives alongside the potential price and storage-size sweet spot. We came to the following conclusions.
In addition to the drives we tested for the previous version of this guide, we researched USB flash drives introduced in the past two years. After compiling a list of possible candidates, we then looked through owner reviews on retailer sites such as Amazon and Newegg before settling on the seven new drives we tested for this update.
First, we tested the drives’ sequential and random speeds using CrystalDiskMark benchmarking software. We then ran two file-copy tests: one with a single 8 GB file, the other with a 24 GB folder containing 12 folders with more than 4,700 MP3 files among them. We used Robocopy on Windows, and we fully formatted the drive between each type of test. We copied each folder to and from each drive three times and then averaged the results. To ensure that different platforms recognized the drives, we plugged them into several devices, including a TCL TV and a PlayStation 4.
In addition, we tried the drives’ sliding mechanisms, and during file transfers we noted temperatures by touch to confirm that none got too hot. Finally, we created a bootable installer for Windows 10 and installed it on each of our final contenders to see whether they worked as bootable drives.
The fastest drive we tested for transferring data to and from a computer, this model is well priced for the amount of storage space it offers. We prefer its retractable plug to an inevitably lost cap.
May be out of stock
The Patriot Supersonic Rage Prime USB 3.2 Gen 2 (250 GB) is the fastest and most reliable of all the USB-A flash drives we tested. Typically around $40 for 250 GB of storage, the pricing is great, and the drive has a retractable design, eliminating the need to keep track of a tiny, easily lost cap.
It’s reliable across the board. In the course of using the Patriot flash drive across multiple laptops and numerous tests, we found that it was one of the few drives that held up without a hiccup. Most other drives exhibited at least a few seconds’ worth of discrepancy here and there, but the Patriot drive performed steadily and consistently well in all testing scenarios.
It has a great price per gigabyte. Though the price for a good, high-performance USB drive has stayed about the same since our previous update to this guide (around $40), the amount of storage you can get for that price has increased dramatically. The Patriot drive is a great example, providing 250 GB of storage rather than the previous standard of 128 GB.
It’s fast, even on more demanding tasks. Though transferring 24 GB of small MP3 files was challenging for many of the drives we tested, the Patriot drive handled the task like a champ, reading the data almost 20 seconds faster than our runner-up and writing it nearly 2.5 minutes faster.
Even if you have an extensive library of music or pictures, the Patriot drive can significantly cut down the time that transferring those files might take, in both directions. In our tests, it read a simple 8 GB file 7 seconds faster than our runner-up, and it wrote the same file 8 seconds faster.
Even if your current laptop or computer doesn’t have the latest, USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, the Patriot drive will provide extremely fast transfer speeds. We tested the Patriot drive on both a USB 3.2 Gen 2 port and an older, USB 3.2 Gen 1 port, and the difference was slight: Only a few seconds separated the two ports’ results for the 8 GB file, and the drive took about a minute longer to read and write the 24 GB folder on the older port than on the USB 3.2 Gen 2 port. Both of those results are faster than what we saw from our runner-up, the SanDisk drive, in the same USB 3.2 Gen 1 port test. Even if you have an older computer, these speeds still make the Patriot drive a great choice for USB storage.
Though CrystalDiskMark tests don’t translate directly to real-world results, the Patriot drive scored comfortably high in that synthetic benchmark, posting read and write speeds of 604.78 megabytes per second and 448.50 MB/s, respectively. The SanDisk Extreme Pro, our runner-up, achieved a 352.85 MB/s read speed and a 320.32 MB/s write speed, which is fast but not quite a match for the Patriot’s speeds. Our pick for a USB-C flash drive, the Kingston DataTraveler Max Type-C, produced extremely fast results in the CrystalDiskMark tests, registering speeds of 1069.56 MB/s for the read and 754.24 MB/s for the write. While those numbers are impressive, in our real-world tests we often saw such results only in the initial use of that Kingston drive; the drive flagged in speed after heavy use.
It’s small, and there’s no cap to lose. The Patriot drive measures around 2 inches long and has a light plastic casing that feels a little cheap, though not to the extent that we were concerned it would crack or break in regular use. It’s notably light, and it features a retracting head. The case is easy to close and would be no problem even for those with limited hand strength or dexterity; however, on occasion the easy-close case can slide back slightly while you’re plugging in the drive and get in your way.
It can get warm. Like most of the flash drives we tested, the Patriot Supersonic Rage Prime heats up after heavy use. In our tests, though, its plastic casing never grew warm enough to cause discomfort.
Plugging it in can be a little irritating. Though the case’s slide mechanism can get in your way, the sliding action is smooth and easy to manipulate. There’s a bit of a trick to plugging in the drive, but once we figured out the best way to do it, we didn’t even notice the issue anymore.
The head can collect lint. We prefer retractable USB drives because they eliminate the need to keep track of a tiny cap in order to protect and use your drive. But because the Patriot drive lacks a cover, those who regularly put their flash drives in pockets or bags might find that it attracts some dust. In practice, however, this is unlikely to happen.
This flash drive delivers fast, reliable performance in a solid casing. It’s perfect for people who don’t need as much storage and want a drive that can stand up to rougher handling.
The SanDisk Extreme Pro USB 3.2 (128 GB) was hot on the Patriot Supersonic Rage Prime’s heels in our speed tests, and as our previous top pick (formerly named the Extreme Pro USB 3.1), it has proven its reliability over several years. It has a solid metal case that feels durable and pleasant to handle. It also includes an LED activity light, a feature that USB drives often lack, and its USB connector is retractable, so it has no parts to lose and it shouldn’t get damaged when you throw it in a bag. SanDisk covers the Extreme Pro USB 3.2 with a limited lifetime warranty.
It’s fast. The SanDisk drive did well in both reading and writing files, achieving read speeds of 23 seconds and write speeds of 29 seconds in our 8 GB large-file test plus read and write speeds of 1 minute 22 seconds and 3 minutes 59 seconds, respectively, on our 24 GB small-files test. Though the Extreme Pro doesn’t quite measure up to the Supersonic Rage Prime, its performance is more than respectable.
But it’s a little more expensive than the Patriot drive. This SanDisk drive is usually priced around $40 to $45 for the 128 GB version, whereas the Patriot drive is priced similarly (and often less) for nearly double the amount of storage at 250 GB. But 128 GB is usually more than enough space for most situations, and we think that only those people who have extensive digital libraries or big projects will hit the storage limit.
It’s durable and well designed. The Extreme Pro drive’s aluminum casing measures just under 3 inches long. It features a retracting head that snaps out with a satisfying thunk and should stay in place until you unlock it; this means that you have no caps to lose, though you might have to deal with some lint if you throw the drive in the wrong bag.
Compared with the Patriot drive’s design, this SanDisk model’s design might pose a bit more of a challenge for those with very limited hand strength or dexterity, as its sliding mechanism is a little harder to move, but for most people it should present no issue. It weighs slightly more than the other drives we tested for this update, and it feels solid and sturdy in the hand.
Though we occasionally encountered lower speeds during heavy use of this drive, it's a good option if you need a USB-C drive that is usually very fast and offers a large amount of storage.
The Kingston DataTraveler Max Type-C (256 GB) is a good option for anyone who needs a USB drive that works with USB-C ports without an adapter or dongle. Both of our USB-A picks were reliably faster than this drive in our tests, but the DataTraveler Max Type-C can churn out some impressive speeds as long as you don’t subject it to heavy, constant use.
It’s blazing fast, but inconsistently so. Though this Kingston drive regularly posted speeds around 700 MB/s to 900 MB/s on both the 8 GB and 24 GB read tests, its write speeds were less impressive, landing between 70 MB/s and 80 MB/s on both write tests. Its speeds always decreased after heavy usage during hours of full reformatting and file transferring (the same conditions to which we subjected all the drives in the test group), so if you know that you’ll be using your flash drive lightly and need it only for transferring files between USB-C devices, this model will serve you well.
It gets uncomfortably hot, and the housing feels cheap. Though this drive did not burn us, we could imagine that its high temperature might catch some people by surprise. As for the design, the sliding mechanism takes up the entire top half of the drive; plugging the drive in without activating the slide can be difficult as a result. Overall, unless you have a strict aversion to dongles and adapters and are married to USB-C with no thought of leaving, we recommend one of our USB-A picks with a USB-C adapter over this model.
You can find thousands of USB flash drives available for purchase, and though we haven’t used every single one, we have tested a good amount. Here we’ve listed just a few that didn’t make the cut in our latest round of testing.
The Kingston DataTraveler Max Type-A (256 GB) has all the same quirks as its USB-C counterpart, without the novelty of USB-C support. It offers lots of space for a good price, but in our tests it was too inconsistent to recommend, despite posting blistering speeds on read tasks.
The Lexar JumpDrive P30 USB 3.2 Gen 1 (128 GB) is marketed as a more premium USB flash drive, but in our tests it was significantly slower than our runner-up drive from SanDisk on the 24 GB complex file transfers. It has a pleasingly solid body with a metal outer casing and an indicator light, and temperature-wise it’s the coolest drive we tested, but its sliding mechanism is not as easy and smooth as that of the SanDisk drive. A little included carrying pouch with a small loop on the back protects the drive from dust and dirt.
The Samsung Type-C (256 GB) is budget-friendly and has plenty of storage capacity, but in our tests it couldn’t keep up on the 24 GB small-file transfer, taking more than 6.5 minutes for the write. It’s almost too small to grip properly, and it has a cap that is difficult to remove—we could imagine accidentally flinging the cap, the drive, or both into a dark, inconvenient corner while trying to take it off. Unless you are looking for the smallest drive possible, we recommend our top USB-A picks instead.
We were hopeful about the SSK SD300 (256 GB) because it is a convertible USB-A–to–C drive that comes with an adapter, but unlike our previous convertible pick from Samsung, the SD300 lacks a nifty all-in-one design that allows the adapter to snap into the body for ease of use. In addition, this model was the most unreliable drive we tested, as nearly half the time it would disconnect unexpectedly during a test or freeze the window, forcing us to kill the task and start over. It was also difficult to plug in and remove.
This article was edited by Arthur Gies, Signe Brewster, and Caitlin McGarry.
Ivy Liscomb is an updates writer for the PC team at Wirecutter. She has a great weakness for chili crisp, the smell of old books, and defunct technologies like VHS and reel-to-reel audio. You can usually find her reading, sewing, or extolling the virtues of ’80s movies with the utmost sincerity.
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