The app could use some small refinements, like enabling the swipe-to-go-back gesture so I don't have to stretch for the back button in the upper-left corner. But what's here works well, and I'm impressed with the iXpand's build quality.

Light and portable; but still sturdy

Extra options in the app are a little hidden

My wife and I recently returned from our honeymoon in the American Southwest. We toured the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Lake Powell and the Hoover Dam over the course of nine wonderful days.

The idea behind the SanDisk iXpand Flash drive is simple. Essentially a USB thumb drive that's equipped with a Lightning connector, it's all you need for an excellent storage expansion for your iPad (or iPhone).

The SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive instantly adds up to 128GB of storage space and it can work as a USB thumbdrive; Its iXpand Sync mobile app works very well both for media playback and content backup

The drive can't hold files larger than 4GB and only supports USB 2.0

With the iXpand drive, SanDisk is providing an on-the-go flash device for users of iPhones and iPads. It has been designed to be plug-and-play (after you install and app for it), and at its most basic level it's a two-headed flash drive with both USB and Lightning interfaces.

An on-the-go drive for Apple users; Solid build; Easy to use

Needs to be charged via USB; Had a bit of trouble skimming through AVI files

SanDisk's iXpand is a dual-pronged memory drive with a Lighting connector on one end and a USB interface on the other. It's designed to solve two problems: the first is the alleged difficulty in getting photos off your iPhone or iPad; the second is iOS devices' lack of expandable storage.

Easy to use; Plays back almost any media file; Clean and simple app

Bulky; No USB 3.0; Apple's ecosystem limits what the iXpand can actually back-up

Picked up a 16GB iPhone or iPad and realised you can't store much on it? Time to pick up one of the best after-market storage gadgets we've seen in recent memory: the Sandisk iXpand Drive for iPhone and iPad.

Great after-market storage option for smaller iDevices; Auto-backup works great; Format support for video playback is extensive

Expensive; Lightning connector will almost certainly break; Slow file transfer speeds

The Hyper iStick was the world's first USB flash drive to have a USB connector with an Apple-certified Lightning connector, according to its manufacturer, Sanho Corporation.It lets you transfer data such as music, pictures and documents, between computers (PC and Mac) and supported iOS devices...

SanDisk's iXpand flash drive brings additional storage to your Apple iOS device, but is the performance it offers enough?

Thanks to the Lightning connector, you can't just plug a Micro-USB OTG drive into your iOS devices the way you can with Android phones and Windows tablets. You need a drive with the Lightning cable like the SanDisk iXpand , which is now available as a 128GB model, and with extra security options.

Using a iPad or iPhone you have grown to having fixed storage on these devices. They don't have expandable storage card slots like some android devices and you are pretty much stuck with what you have.