This Cheap USB Gadget From Amazon Could Help You Ditch Cloud Storage For Good

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Nowadays, cloud storage feels like a mandatory solution for backing up personal files, whether you'd like to save your pictures, videos, or even documents. You can simply select one of the best cloud storage services, and you'll be set. However, keeping files on the cloud usually comes with a cost once you hit a certain data threshold, as most services offer a free tier with limited storage and will charge you a subscription fee if you need more space. One major difference between the cloud storage services is that some offer larger drives in the free tier than others.

If that's making you grow tired of cloud storage services, and you want to look for an alternative solution that won't bill you every month, a special physical drive like the SanDisk Creator Phone Drive is a great option. This thumb drive comes with either 128 GB or 256 GB of storage, enough to hold lots of videos and documents. The Creator Phone Drive has a positive rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars from over 170 Amazon reviews as of this writing, and 80% of users vouch for it with 4-star or 5-star reviews. Additionally, it has Amazon's Choice label, which means it's highly rated and well-priced. 

It comes with two connectors, a USB-C connector on one side and a Lightning connector on the other, which allow you to plug it into your phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop, making it great to back up your Android phone. As it's meant for backup, SanDisk has included a cover on the device for protection. Transferring files to and from the drive shouldn't take long, as it supports a data transfer rate of up to 90 megabytes per second and a read speed of 100 megabytes per second.

One special thing about getting the SanDisk Creator Phone Drive is that it's a one-time cost of $64.99 for the 128 GB version and $92.99 for the 256 GB model. Once you've purchased it, you can store your files without having to pay anyone an extra fee. This is unlike cloud apps, which have to be paid for on a recurring basis. For example, iCloud charges $2.99 per month for 200 GB of storage, the same terms of Google One's Standard Plan. OneDrive's cheapest plan with 100 GB of space costs $1.99 a month, while Dropbox offers a 2 TB plan for $11.99 per month. 

All of these figures might seem small for what you're getting, but the numbers add up quickly when you consider that the costs are continuous. For instance, if you pay for the 200 GB iCloud or Google One plan at $2.99 monthly for three years, you will spend a total of $107.64, which is already higher than SanDisk's 256 GB thumb drive. Now imagine stretching that to longer periods, because you'll still be relying on the cloud service for five or even 10 years from now.

Additionally, depending on a cloud storage service is risky since the price isn't fixed — a service might change the pricing at any moment. A recent example is Google's price increase in February 2025 for a number of countries. Besides its one-time cost, this drive is also perfect for backing up private files you should never store in the cloud.