Boost your iPhone storage with Lexar’s tiny devices [Review]

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Lexar makes a microSD reader and JumpDrive that backs up your iPhone data and frees its memory.
Lexar makes a microSD reader and JumpDrive that backs up your iPhone data and frees its memory.
Photo: David Pierini/Cult of Mac

We take for granted how much of our lives are stored on our iPhones until, of course, that day arrives when a notification pops up to say the device’s memory is full.

Lexar has a couple of nifty little devices to quickly store photos, videos, music and documents, and free up the memory on your iPhone.

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Lightning-fast memory saver

Both devices, a jump drive and a microSD card reader, plug into an iPhone or iPad Lightning port. And, with Lexar’s free Mobile Manager app transferring a large number of files happens quickly.

How quick is quick? I was able to download 633 pictures onto a microSD card with the Lexar reader in three minutes. The C20i JumpDrive comes with memory ranging from 16GB to 128GB and was even faster offloading the same number of pictures (I discovered it could charge my phone when connected to my MacBook, one of the “3-in-1” solutions it offers).

The iPhone has quickly become the computer we rely on most, simply because it fits in our pocket. It’s not just internet access. It’s a camera and camcorder for the masses, a small screen to watch videos, TV shows and movies, and offers an ecosystem with thousands of apps that help us track our health, finances, appointments and relationships.

All these tasks and more quickly fill up your iPhone memory, and while there are several cloud-based solutions sometimes a simple piece of hardware not dependent on a network can address the problem more quickly.

Lexar has been in the digital memory business for some 20 years, the makers of flash drives, media cards and card readers. With our lives so integrated with our iPhones, Lexar makes a welcome venture in on-the-go storage solutions.

Tiny reader for tiny card

I quickly became a fan of these two devices, especially the microSD card reader. As a photographer, I have used media cards and card readers for the past 15 years, once the last of my film cameras was pried from my hands.

Lexar storage solution for iPhone
Lexar’s microSD reader and Mobile Manager app is a simple and fast way to offload photos and video from your iPhone.
Photo: David Pierini/Cult of Mac

While it took me a while to warm to the idea of digital photography, once in practice I came to appreciate the speed. In doing so, I came to feel most secure with the media cards and card readers offered by Lexar.

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I’ve used a number of brands, but never once had a corrupt Lexar card (though, I understand card corruption happens all the time and my experience with Lexar may not be the same as the next person).

Paranoid is not too strong a word for my philosophy for backing up my pictures. I do so incessantly with multiple hard drives, and while I still have a MacBook with a CD drive, DVDs.

Photography on the iPhone now occupies part of my passion for making pictures and so I will often email phone pictures to myself as a way of backing them up to other places. Cloud storage is great, but I only use it as another backup to the backup that is backing up another backup.

My only complaint is the card does not easily come out of the reader. I did a quick live chat with tech support, which assured me it just slid out. I realized I’d just clipped my fingernails, and when I passed on to someone who had longer nails they were able to get the card right out.

While little of my work encompassed video, the Lexar card reader would be great for iPhone filmmakers or for storing drone footage.

Plug it in

The JumpDrive is also impressive in its design and function. It folds down and stays compact thanks to a little cord clip, and is especially useful when you want to listen to music or watch a video right off the drive.

Lexar storage solutions for iPhone
Lexar’s C20i JumpDrive can store, transfer and charge.
Photo: David Pierini/Cult of Mac

The interface is intuitive and there are a number of icons you can select so that either device syncs to your phone’s camera roll, videos, music and more. There’s also in-app storage available, along with contact backups and syncing with your Dropbox account.

Storage is not a sexy topic. Peace of mind does not come with a joystick. But there is a rush of endorphins when you realize the files you could have lost forever are backed up somewhere.

Buy from: Find the microSF reader on Amazon, and the JumpDrive on Amazon ($29.95 for 16 GB, $43.99 for 32 GB, $58.88 for 64 GB and $89 for 128 GB).

Lexar provided Cult of Mac with a review unit for this article. See Cult of Mac’s reviews policy.

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