Olala recently sent in a the iD300 for review both intended for use with iOS devices and PC’s simultaneously. The drives shipped in a typical blister pack that was easy enough to open including just the drive. Our review unit is the 32gb in capacity and a 64gb model is also available. There are also three color choices, Black, Silver and Rose the main body remains the same color which appears identical to the silver we were sent as a test model, a clean and consistent look.
The drive feels well made with a satisfying weight and premium feel and finish, any plastic used appears to be limited to the connectors themselves a welcome design choice. There’s a click in both positions holding the protective shield over the usb3 connector or lighting connector(I do advise having it over the lightning connector when not in use as that is the more fragile of the two)
Performance
Lightning is limited to usb 2.0 except on the ipad pro which I unfortunately don’t have one to test, however the drive is usb 3.0 capable otherwise. and more than fast enough for the usb 2.0 capable phones, Although I’m not going to chart it against other drives(as none are comparable due to the lack of lightning connectors) I did still test it and well include it as the baseline for lightning devices going forward, I would however expect the 64gb drive to come in slightly faster.
The app
Unlike most of the android flash drives I’ve tested the iOS drives all seem to use their own app, olala calls theirs conveniently iDisk me which is easy to remember and works well the interaction feels a bit awkward coming from android but is effective. And having observed an iOS user in action with it just a difference in mindsets.
Overall the product does exactly what it advertises, it helps bridge the gap between iDevice and PC for movement of media without any of the potential pitfalls of wireless transfers. I’m left walking away finding a single fault if any with the product and that is unfortunatly it’s pricing which is very clearly reflective of the “Apple Tax” at the time of writing the 32gb model comes in at 36 dollars and the 64gb model comes in at 48 dollars, a small but measurable premium compared to type-c or microUSB drives, likely imposed by the MFi certification and does not detract from this being an excellent drive all around.
