Transcend JetDrive Go 500S Review – Bidding Apple Storage Woes Farewell

Whenever you buy an Apple product, you can pretty much expect its physical storage to dwindle down over time. And when such a time comes, you’ll either be resorting to cloud storage to back up your data, or go with the hassle of backing it up on your computer with iTunes. There’s just no room for additional storage here, and you simply just can’t switch your data back and worth hassle-free. This is where Transcend’s JetDrive Go 500S wants to shine.

Whenever you buy an Apple product, you can pretty much expect its physical storage to dwindle down over time. And when such a time comes, you’ll either be resorting to cloud storage to back up your data, or go with the hassle of backing it up on your computer with iTunes. There’s just no room for additional storage here, and you simply just can’t switch your data back and worth hassle-free. This is where Transcend’s JetDrive Go 500S wants to shine.

The JetDrive Go 500S wants to get rid of your storage woes with your Apple devices, and it does so by adding connectivity options with a compatible iDevice through its Lightning Port on one of its ends and a standard USB port on another. To put it simply, it’s a dual flash drive that can be connected to either an iPhone, iPad, or an iTouch and a computer.

 Packaging

Transcend ships the JetDrive Go 500S inside quite a compact packaging. Most of the necessary details are printed all over the box itself, and you shouldn’t have any trouble in knowing what some of its specifications are should you be perusing it. Packed inside the box are some paperwork, two caps, a leather strap, and the JetDrive Go 500S itself.

Design

As far as the form factor goes, the JetDrive Go 500S is quite compact. While it’s not as small as the other of Transcend’s offerings that have dual connection interface, it’s still quite handy at 36.55mm x 14.3mm x 9.01mm. It also looks stylish and sleek thanks to its metallic zinc casing that also adds up to the durability of the flash drive itself. If there’s one thing to gripe about, though, it’s the caps on both ends. You’ll most likely lose these caps along the way, so we were hoping that Transcend could have gone with retractable or sliding mechanisms.

Usability

Since dual flash drive aims to bring convenience, it does so starting with getting it to work with an iDevice. The moment you plug it in, there will be an onscreen prompt that will direct you to an installation of the JetDrive Go app to make it work.

The interface is also quite clean and straightforward. From the main screen, you’ll get access to different sections such as JetDrive Go, My Storage, Camera Roll, and Backups. Clicking on JetDrive Go will reveal the contents of the drive itself, and it’s organized as to how you did it. My Storage acts as an extra storage space where you can store your files when the drive isn’t present. Camera Roll, as its name suggests, gives you access to the photos on your iDevice. Clicking on Backups will give you an option to backup specific types of files on your iDevice as well.

Folder navigation

You can play music and take photos directly from the app, too. It’s not exactly a unique feature, but it adds up to the ease of access the app provides.

If you also want to access all the files that you’ve backed up, you can easily do so by just going to your computer’s file browser. Easy enough if you’re not with your personal computer that has your iTunes in it.

Performance

Now, the performance of the JetDrive Go 500S will be benchmarked on the iOS due to the lack of acid tests on the platform for storage parameters. Furthermore, backup speeds will wholly depend on the number of files and its sizes on your device, so your mileage may vary. But we’ll rate it either way to give you an idea on how it would fare on such an environment. So, let’s get to it.

Transcend claims that the JetDrive Go 500S can deliver read speeds of up to 130MB/s, and we’re happy to test that. Using ATTO Disk Benchmark, it managed to cough up the said rate at 130MB/s tops for read speeds. Write speeds, on the other hand, peak at 31MB/s.  Crystal Diskmark, another benchmarking standard for storage devices, also give close results. Read rates top at 131.2MB/s, and write rates are at 32.74MB/s. You can unload files and transfer them in quick succession, but write performance leave more to be desired. Still, it’s not as slow as the previous standard, but it could be better.

ATTO Disk Benchmark

Crystal Diskmark

For the real world test performance, we resorted to using the data files of Overwatch, which amounts to 7.19GB in total that’s made out of large and small files. It took 5:31 (5 minutes and 31 seconds) to copy everything from the hard drive to the flash drive, and a total of 1:15 (1 minute and 15 seconds) to unload it to a hard drive from the JetDrive Go 500S. 

For a chunk of a file, an ISO of Windows 7 was transferred back and forth to the flash drive. The 3.77GB file size was transferred to the flash drive in about 2:45 (2 minutes and 45 seconds, and back in just 0:33 (33 seconds).

For backing up, our iPad contained a total of 288 files that’s composed of photos, videos, and contacts. Based on iOS’ data, the total size amounts to 484MB. It took about 1:53 (1 minute 53 seconds) to unload them all on the JetDrive Go 500S.

 Conclusion:

Apple devices have sorely been lacking the capabilities of easy storage expansions as well as the ability to transfer files back and forth to a physical storage in a quick and efficient manner. Transcend has been on the move to solve that, and the JetDrive Go 500S is one of the best options you can get right now. It gives you the ease of access you need without all the hurdles that Apple requires, and it does so in a quick fashion. The 32GB version currently sports a $43.99 price tag, and that’s relatively a small price to pay especially if you’re already rocking an Apple device.

The user experience is simple and clean, making it perfect for mainstream users that wants something that “just works.” Sure, it isn’t a speed beast that can beat high-performance 3.0 flash drives, but its edge and its core is its usability. And that’s where it shines.