Nifty MiniDrive

Compatibility • MacBook Air 13-inch • MacBook Pro 13 and 15-inch • MacBook Pro with Retina 13-inch • Supports 128GB microSD • Works with Time Machine

Learn more: eu.theniftyminidrive.com

Available from: stormfront.co.uk

Price: £24.99/$40

A real Kickstarter success story, the Nifty MiniDrive is a beautifully simple device in both form and function. It’s a storage drive designed to fit a MacBook’s SD card slot, and the MiniDrive itself has a slot for a microSD card that provides the storage capacity. Even better, it accepts all the microSD cards currently available – any brand, size or specification – and can theoretically support 2TB cards, although these aren’t even out yet. The Nifty MiniDrive comes with a free 2GB microSD, and it’s as quick and easy to use as a USB memory stick. Stick it into your Mac and open the drive through Finder for an instant storage boost.

After cooking up the Nifty Mark 1 by hand back in March 2012 (metal, fibreglass and silicon for five minutes at 230°C), creatives Piers and Steve asked the Kickstarter community for $11,000 to help realise their product commercially. A month and $384,319 later, their campaign was a roaring success. By September 2013, the first batch of Nifty MiniDrives were sold out.

The reason for their success is both the simplicity of the Nifty MiniDrive and the solution it offers for the portable storage problem. External HDs are cumbersome, USB sticks wear out and stick out the side of a MacBook (so need to be removed when packing up), while cloud storage is limited by internet connection. The Nifty plugs in and works right off the bat, fitting so seamlessly into a Mac that you wouldn’t even realise it’s there.

Transfer speeds depend on the capabilities of the microSD card you’re using and your Mac’s SD card reader. Most pre-2012 MacBooks are capped at 60MB/s, so speeds aren’t terribly fast, but they do equal most USB sticks and cloud syncs. Running files from the Nifty MiniDrive was fine, too – we only experienced lag when we were testing out 4K video.

The Nifty works perfectly with Time Machine and can also hold things like your iTunes library or Dropbox, so it’s the ideal backup solution for side-loading. And did we mention that it looks great? Gorgeous shades of silver and red make the Nifty MiniDrive stand out when plugged into your MacBook – if you aren’t looking at it side-on, that is. Highly recommended.

Buy now?

Pros Innovative, easy to use and very competitively priced

Cons Each is designed to only support one type of MacBook

Verdict: