Adam Elements iKlips iOS Lightning / USB 3.0 Flash Drive Review

TweakTown's Rating: 86%

The Bottom Line

The iKlips from Adam Elements is certainly the quickest Apple Lightning flash drive we have tested having topped out our chart, though its high price may be too much to overlook.

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Apple Lightning enabled flash drives really seem to be catching on as of late, with vendors such as SanDisk and Strontium among other releasing solutions. Adding to the growing list of iOS solutions is the latest from Adam Elements, the iKlips.

The iKlips is touted as the world's quickest Apple Lightning flash drive. It won the Red Dot design award just earlier this year and is Apple MFi certified. Marketing performance for this solution says we should be looking at 140 MB/s read and 70 MB/s write over USB 3.0, while the Lightning interface should deliver 26 MB/s read and 10 MB/s write. Capacity options range form the small 16GB model to a 256GB solution capable of storing 320 hours of video. Compatibility extends to Windows 7+ along with OS X and Apple iOS.

MSRP of the Adam Elements iKlips in the 128GB capacity is listed at $179.99 with a one-year warranty.

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Packaging for the iKlips gives us a look at the flash drive, while compatibility is shown below.

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Removing the box, we found the iKlips housed in dense foam, which is certainly a nice touch.

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Scope of delivery includes the drive and a short user manual.

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Above, we a closer look of the iKlips solution. The 128GB model we have here is available in this gold color along with red. Both ports are covered by soft rubber protectors when not in use.

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When we first plugged the iKlips into our iPhone, we were greeted by the above message.

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We were then redirected to the app store allowing us to download the required app.

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When first opening the iKlips app, we were greeted by a sleek interface and five folders including finder. Everything is categorized and quite easy to navigate.

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On to testing the iKlips, we found that this drive was capable of 157 MB/s read and 42 MB/s write. This is just over marketing for read performance, but slightly below on write.

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As far as price/performance is concerned, the iKlips lands in the middle of the pack, mostly due to its high price per GB.

The iKlips is a unique solution in that, like other iOS flash drives, it allows consumers to easily move data between their smartphone and PC or Mac. Typically, these solutions were held back by below average transfer performance, but this iKlips device takes this to the next level.

Build quality is top notch and some of the best I have seen in a flash drive, while adding to the presentation was the intense detail in the packaging. Each of the two ports are protected by a soft rubber cover, while the back of the drive houses a small belt clip, so you can attach it to a bag or yourself. Performance was as marketing described the best we have seen for a Lightning flash drive with read touching 157 MB/s. Write performance, while underperforming if we go by marketing numbers, was still respectable at 42 MB/s.

A large part of solutions like the iKlips rely on the functionality of the app. With the iKlips, I was very pleased in how easy it was to navigate and use, even backup. Though something I have noticed recently is vendors using in-app storage which seems to block external access to photos and videos you upload from the flash drive. MSRP of the Adam Elements iKlips in the 128GB capacity is listed at $179.99 with a one-year warranty, which makes the iKlips one of the most expensive solutions for data expansion on your iOS solution, and that's really the only negative part of the product.

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