With the price Apple is charging for iPhones these days, it can be tempting to save as much as possible by buying the entry level version — with the lowest storage space. However, that decision can bite you, because unlike some Android smartphones, there’s no way to increase that storage through use of micro SD cards. If your iPhone or iPad is critically low of available space, Kingston offers a solution in the DataTraveler Bolt Duo. This portable drive provides 32GB, 64GB or 128 GB of flash storage, plus a USB-A port for easy transferring of files between iOS devices and Macs.
Its the same idea as the OLALA iDisk I reviewed several years ago (some iPhone problems never go away). While the DataTraveler Bolt Duo is half the size it still has the same problems: using it means having a flash drive sticking out of the bottom of your iPhone, and iOS limits file management.
Download the App, Plug in the Drive
To start using the DataTraveler Bolt Duo on an iPhone or iPad, you’ll need to download the iOS app. On the Mac side, it’s usable out of the box, mounting like any other USB thumb drive. If you own a MacBook that’s USB-C only, you’ll need a dongle or dock, though…
From there, you have a choice: transfer photos or videos from your iPhone to the drive, capture directly to the drive, or view content stored on the drive.
The first option lets you quickly free up storage space by transferring files to the Kingston drive. The second is useful for a situation where you plan to be shooting a lot of video, letting you write the files directly to the external drive if you’re short of space. And the third is self-explanatory: view photos or videos stored on the drive.
Limitations and Inconveniences
Each of these options has limitations. Move your photos and videos to the DataTraveler Bolt Duo and you can’t view them on your iPhone without the drive being connected. If you record video directly to the drive, the app limits you to three options: 720p at 30fps, 1080p at 30fps and 4k at 18fps. I’m guessing the video recording limitation is related to the maximum read/write speed or the Lightning port’s data throughput. Whatever the reason, you won’t be able to take full advantage of the video capabilities of most iPhones.
Finally, that ability to view files that you’ve transferred from your iPhone or copied from a Mac is limited to images and video. I experimented with Pages documents and other files, but no dice…
There’s also the issue of connectivity. This is a flash drive that plugs into an iPhone or iPad Lightning port. That means most of the drive is sticking out conspicuously, held in place by a fragile Lightning connector. It’s not a problem for transferring files so long as you’re careful, but if you intend to shoot photos or video directly to the DataTraveler Bolt Duo, it would be really easy to accidentally snap it off.
On the plus side, I tried the Kingston drive with multiple iPhone XS Max cases and there were no issues with port cutout sizes.
An iCloud Alternative
Apple of course would be happy to sell you a cloud-based solution for offloading your photos and videos. Everyone gets 5GB of iCloud storage for free, but you’ll quickly blow through that if you’re backing up your device. The next tier is 50GB for $0.99/month. That’s a much smaller investment than buying a Kingston DataTraveler Bolt Duo, but to actually use that storage you need to upload your photos. Unless you’re on Wi-Fi, that means cellular data, which can be slow, costly and (in some remote locations) not even available. Recording directly to iCloud is also not an option…
With this external flash drive, you can always transfer or save your photos and videos — so long as you remember to bring the drive.
Recommendation
Having a flash drive plugged into the bottom of your iPhone may not be the most convenient thing ever, but if you want to save space on photo and video storage (without uploading everything to iCloud), the Kingston DataTraveler Bolt Duo offers a solution. And with prices starting at $34.99 for 32GB, it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than buying a new iPhone.
Disclosure: Kingston provided a DataTraveler Bolt Duo for evaluation but had no input into this review.
