The iXpand drive lands in a cardboard and plastic packet, with the drive itself in a vacuum-formed plastic section. The front of the packaging clearly states what the drive does, who it’s for and how it works.


The reverse of the packaging is a wall of text, giving you plenty of information if you need it. There’s a handy scissor-line to follow, giving you easy access into the packaging.


The drive is relatively large by today’s standards, at 57mm long and 12mm wide, but it can’t really be compared to a typical drive. The rubber loop on the right is stiff and allows only a small amount of flex to be plugged into the bottom of your iPhone/iPad.

The small recess that the Lightning adaptor sits into also provides a softer point-of-contact than the metal USB housing, to prevent the back of your phone from being scratched. A small rubber coating on the recess would’ve been nice, for that reason. However, as you’ll see, it’s not been that well tested, as far as we can tell.


The reverse side looks pretty similar, nothing much to report here.


When plugged into the phone, it doesn’t protrude too much and leaves the phone perfectly useable while you transfer data to it, but if you’re not using a case, the metal housing will contact the glass back on an iPhone X which is very likely to cause scratches.