Everyday Carry. What essentials do you carry on a daily basis?

A reversible one supports both USB-A and USB-C. Mac/iPhone user so I only need USB-C, but USB-A is useful for some things (also, I do have a 4-port USB-A hub on my desk so I could use it via that).

Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Lexar-128GB-JumpDrive-Type-C-LJDD400128G-BNQNU/dp/B0BWLHFGV8

You can save $8 or so by picking the 128GB one, but that gets you half the storage. The 256GB one is the sweet spot price-wise here.

You just want to look out for "USB 3.2" or "USB 3 Gen 2" or something like that. It's the fastest you'll get with a flash drive, and about all the speed you need out of a flash drive.

If you're looking for a lot more storage, you don't want a flash drive, you want a portable SSD. Same thing but a little bigger and typically uses a cable to connect. Typically it's USB-C to USB-C, but you could find a USB-C to USB-A cable just as well. Samsung T9 is the newest, Samsung T7 is just as good IMO, I got my 2TB T7 for around $120 on Black Friday a few years ago.

I've been carrying a Samsung Bar around with me for a long time

No USB-C

It's not the smallest, nor probably the lightest flash drive out there, but it's smaller than a lot of other ones I've had, and i don't know if the tiny weight difference between most is actually significant enough to really worry about.

I have one of the older models, I'm sure the newer ones are a bit faster with newer tech, and the aesthetics are a little different, but the overall build quality seems to be about the same. Mine has been bounced around on keychains, been thrown in bags and pockets with all manner of other junk, dropped, stepped on, and I'm pretty sure it's been through the wash once or twice and is still going strong after probably almost a decade.

And I think it's probably one of the more attractive options out there.

As far as speed, can't comment on that, never really bothered to look into that aspect, for my needs it's not really a factor. I've run a few programs off of it and recently used it to test and install Linux and found performance to be perfectly acceptable, and the newer models probably would fare better, but if you have really specific needs for speed you'll have to do your own research on that.

I do keep a little USB A-C dongle in my bag that it usually lives in in case I ever do need to hook it up to my phone or something, but personally that rarely comes up for me. YMMV

I just plug in my phone as a USB device. On graphene and android you can have multiple users. Swap to a user, plug in USB, allow the access and bam.. siloed USB data

I'm late to this, but SanDisk makes a nice compact dual-interface flash drive. The Dual Drive Go. Ultra has better performance than non-ultra. Example: https://www.microcenter.com/product/638440/sandisk-256gb-ultra-dual-drive-go-superspeed-usb-32-(gen-1)-type-c-flash-drive-black