Why You Can Trust CNET Get a 16GB USB OTG drive for $9.99
Or a 32GB drive for $16.99. Either way: lots of extra storage for your Android device! Oh, and your PC, too.
Some Android phones and tablets have microSD slots for expansion, others, maddeningly, don't. But thanks to Android's support for external storage, all is not lost. All you need is a particular kind of flash drive.
Like this one: For a limited time, Amazon has the Silicon Power Mobile X10 16GB USB OTG flash drive for $9.99, or the 32GB version for $16.99. Those prices include shipping if you're an Amazon Prime subscriber, or if you pad your cart to at least $35. (I'm hoping you can leverage one of those two options, otherwise the shipping charge is an obnoxious $8.64 -- which pretty much kills this deal's appeal.)
The X10 is a spiffy, gold-colored, zinc-alloy drive that measures a mere 31mm long. It sports a microUSB connector on one end and standard USB on the other, meaning you can easily plug it into an Android device or a PC.
Just make sure your phone or tablet supports the requisite USB On-the-Go (OTG) feature. Not sure if yours does? There's at least one app that checks USB OTG compatibility, though you can probably find out just as easily with some Googling of your device name and "OTG."
Also, keep in mind that a drive like this doesn't expand your available storage, at least not in the traditional sense. Rather, you can offload large files to the drive to free up space on your device, or you can stock the drive with media (music, movies, etc.) that wouldn't otherwise fit. And you may need third-party apps that can access the drive.
Even so, $10 and $17 for 16GB and 32GB flash drives is a sweet deal any day of the week -- even ones without a microSD connector. For the storage-strapped Android user, these should be that much sweeter.
Bonus deal: Need proof that new iPhone models are imminent? Virgin Mobile just cut iPhone 5 prices even lower. For example, you can get the iPhone 5s (16GB) for $384.99, shipped, or the iPhone 5c (32GB) for the same price. Virgin's coverage doesn't rival Sprint's, but for many (like Mrs. Cheapskate, who has a Virgin iPhone) it's more than sufficient. And plans start at just $30 monthly.