SanDisk SDDD2 or a two-in-one flash drive

It's a genuine SanDisk flash drive. I've known this company for a very long time, and at the end of the review I'll even show you just how long :)

It comes in a small blister pack covered in a bunch of Chinese characters.


It's very small—about half the size of the flash drives I'm currently using.


There's a metal section on the side that you could use to attach it to your keys, but it barely sticks out, so it's probably more of a design feature.


As I mentioned, it has two connectors.
A full-size USB 3.0 connector and a microUSB 2.0 connector, which lets you connect the drive to mobile devices in OTG mode.
Unfortunately, microUSB only works in 2.0 mode. USB 3.0 requires a different version of the connector, which is noticeably longer.
But overall, that's not a big deal, and having two types of connectors on one device is genuinely convenient.

There's a small slider on the side that moves the mechanism. In the middle position, the mechanism moves freely, which isn't very convenient; it really needs a detent.


The full-size connector is marked with the capacity and serial number. The other side only has compliance marks and the country of manufacture.


There was a verification code on the bottom of the packaging.


I checked the code on the website right away; the link is printed below it.
No problems—the flash drive is genuine.


A photo with the phone.
By the way, the slider that extends the mechanism has two detents in each position. Fully extended, it sticks out a bit too far; the intermediate position is enough.


But after using it for a while, I found that it fits into the port very tightly. The special spring-loaded parts of the connector are partly to blame. They're required by the standard, but in this case they get in the way. I think they'll wear in over time, or I'll just file them down :)


The flash drive came formatted as FAT32.


Windows XP lets you format it as either FAT32 or exFAT. You can also use third-party utilities to format it as NTFS, but I haven't done that (at least not yet): I don't expect to store large files on it, and FAT32 is fine for my needs.


There were already a few files on the drive: the SanDiskSecureAccess program for encrypting data and instructions for using it. I probably won't use it, but I saved it just in case.


First, a check that the drive has the advertised capacity. Everything looks fine, though I didn't expect otherwise.


But the read-speed graph is really jagged, and the speed is lower than advertised.




The read-speed graph in USB FlashBench also looks a bit strange. The screenshot shows two consecutive test runs. The speed changes with different test file sizes, but it varies differently each time.


And now the test that's probably become a classic by now.
Three CrystalDiskMark tests
1. Version 3
2. Version 5
3. Version 5 connected to USB 2.0

Here, too, I didn't get the promised 130 MB/s, while the packaging actually claimed 150 MB/s.


So, what can I say in conclusion? The read and write speeds were a bit disappointing, although 100 MB/s is still pretty good. I'd like faster write speeds, but for the purpose I bought it for, I'll rarely be writing to it and will be reading from it much more often. So, let's say it depends on your needs.
If you need to write a lot of data quickly, you'd be better off looking for another flash drive.
My daughter liked it more because of its small size and two types of connectors. That was one of the criteria I had in mind when choosing it.


And I hope it lasts a long time. We have an old relic from the same company at home: an 8 MB CompactFlash memory card. It's still fully functional and was even used for its intended purpose not that long ago.


I bought the flash drive for $11.82. The price is higher now, but I think that's temporary. At $12, it seems like a pretty good deal to me.