This week Silicon Power has announced a rather unique series of USB flash drives. Dubbed the Mobile C50, the Swiss army knife-type USB flash drive is a 3-in-1 drive that features all three major types of USB connectors, and as a result can be used with virtually all USB host devices from PCs to smartphones. The drives come with up to 128 GB capacity along with additional software to make them further compatible with mobile devices.

The Silicon Power Mobile C50 flash drives feature 32 GB, 64 GB and 128 GB configurations and are equipped with USB Type-A, USB Micro-B, and USB Type-C connectors. Meanwhile the interesting construction of the drives is designed to protect the connectors from damage: the Micro-B connector is sheltered by the Type-A connector, whereas the Type-C connector is protected by a rubber cap (specified to be snapped open over 10,000 times). Along those lines, the drives are also built to protect against dust, water as well as vibration and can operate at temperatures between 0°C and 70°C.

When it comes to performance, Silicon Power only says that the USB Type-A and the USB Type-C connectors enable up to 5 Gbps data transfer rate (USB 3.0), whereas the USB Micro-B connector is a 2.0 style connector, and consequently can transfer data only at up to 480 Mbps. With PC host compatibility a given, mobile compatibility is a bit trickier, and for that reason Silicon Power also ships their SP File Explorer App (for Android mobile devices) with the devices.

Silicon Power Mobile C50 Flash Drives
  SP032GBUC3C50V1K SP064GBUC3C50V1K SP128GBUC3C50V1K
Capacity 32 GB 64 GB 128 GB
Type of NAND Unknown
Maximum Transfer Rate USB Type-A and the USB Type-C: up to 5 Gbps
USB Micro-B: up to 480 Mbps
Material TPU
Dimensions 41.7 x 7.0 x 15.0 mm
Weight 5.2 grams
Operating Temperature 0°C to +70°C
Warranty Five Years

Silicon Power will start selling the new 3-in-1 SP Mobile C50 USB flash drives in the coming weeks. The storage devices will be covered by a five-year limited warranty.

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Source: Silicon Power

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  • Bullwinkle J Moose - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link

    The Good:
    I am still torturing an 8GB Silicon Power (Toshiba Flash) thumb drive that was wiped with killdisk over 300 times in the past 3 years

    It refuses to die!

    The Bad:
    The USB 3.0 on the drive in question has the same problem this one does....
    The "Up To" speed rating is less than worthless

    My Silicon Power rated "UP TO USB 3.0" spec is slower than several of my USB 2.0 drives and does not saturate a USB 2.0 port even though I continually get a popup stating that I should use the drive on a USB 3.0 port for maximum performance

    The Ugly:
    LOOK AT IT!
  • Bullwinkle J Moose - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link

    Correction>

    "The USB 3.0 spec on the drive I own has the same problem this one does...."
  • shabby - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link

    Given its size, it probably runs at usb 2 speeds.
  • SushiOnFire - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link

    I just created an account to point at the type on the second picture ( obviously not Anandtech staff's fault ), Silicon power could do some spell checking of their press material.

    Other than that the USB A port look flimsy.
  • bubblyboo - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link

    I see HTC Sense 2/3 on that promo phone with a USB-C plug.
  • Lord of the Bored - Saturday, July 29, 2017 - link

    HTC always was ahead of their time. :)
  • CharonPDX - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link

    I have a similar design SD/microSD card reader. USB-C on one end, USB-micro-B-nested-in-USB-A on the other. Good little device, supports the full speed of my SDXC cards just fine. So if these are slow, it's probably the flash's fault, not the connector's.
  • Eri Hyva - Friday, July 28, 2017 - link

    Which card reader is that?
  • CharonPDX - Wednesday, August 2, 2017 - link

    Cheapo generic off Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GR8E3EM/
  • DanNeely - Friday, July 28, 2017 - link

    Rube Goldberg and Heath Robinson would approve; but that looks way too fragile and kludgy for frequent use.

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