Intro:

    Since I had access to this recently purchased "thumb drive" from a client of mine, I thought I be considerate and do a quick review of it. This removable storage device is sporting USB 2.0 connectivity, a large 512 MB storage capacity, and a 5 year warranty. All this for under $40.00 USD! What's not to like? Continue on and see if there is anything not to like...

Features/Specifications:

  • Capacities* - 128MB, 256MB, 512MB, 1GB
  • Dimensions - 2.86" x 0.944" x 0.393" (72.7mm x 24.0mm x 10.0mm)
  • Operating Temperature 0o to 60o C / 32o to 140o F
  • Storage Temperature -20o - 85o C / -4o to 185o F
  • Compatibility - Designed to Full-Speed USB 2.0 specifications
  • Efficient - Data transfer rates of up 6MB/sec. read and up to 1.5MB/sec. write**
  • Convenient - Pocket-sized for easy transportability
  • Simple - Just plug and play into a USB port
  • Compatible - Works with Window 98SE†, 2000, XP, Macintosh OS 9.1, 10.x
  • Shielded - Protective plug-in cap
  • Guaranteed - Five-year warranty
  • Fashionable - Sleek profile and hip design
  • Customizable - Co-logo program available
  • Data Retention - 10 years

 ** Speed may vary due to host hardware, software and usage.
 † - Drivers for Windows 98SE users available at http://www.kingston.com/support/downloads/usbdatatrav


The packaging:

    In a nice retail packaging, the Kingston DataTraveler is housed in plastic. And yes, it's the kind of plastic packaging that forces you to go find your best pair of scissors.

(1) Front of the packaging	(2) Back of the packaging

    The back of the insert tells a bit about the device, and has an OS compatibility table for you. No drivers are included, but a link is given to download a Windows 98SE driver if need be.

(3) Compatibility table	(4) More info from the back

The drive itself:

    The sides of the drive is ribbed for an easier grip. Before opening the package, I thought that they would be rubber, but alas, they are plastic, and still do the job in assisting a grip on the drive to remove it. On the top of the drive, a mirror finish sticker has the Kingston logo, which is holographic in nature, the size of the drive, and a small triangle for the LED which flashes during use of the drive. As you can see from picture 7, the Kingston drive is quite small. To clarify, in the picture there is also an old EasyDisk 16 meg, and a 3.5 gram tube of Arctic Silver 5.

(5) Side of drive	(6) Top of drive	(7) Size comparison picture

The included lanyard:

    A nice little lanyard is included to assist you in carrying your drive. It feels very strong as well. I personally wouldn't worry about it breaking off on a keychain. But then again, I'd probably carry this around in my pocket. The only problem was actually getting the lanyard installed. After some fumbling around, I bent the end of the lanyard in a small curve, and was able to get it installed in a few seconds. Without doing that, you'll probably accomplish nothing but triggering your temper as I did.

(8) Lanyard and back of drive	(9) Lanyard installed

Installed:

    If you have front USB ports, this drive will be a pleasure to use on your PC. Crawling under a dusty desk is no fun to put in your drive. However if you have a laptop, it'll be a trip down easy street as well. You could always get an USB extension cable if you are stuck with just back USB ports. That reminds me, the Kingston DataTraveler is small enough to fit in side by side USB ports, with the other occupied by a normal USB cable. Nice huh?

(10) In use

Testing and such:

    First, this will be about the last time I ever test anything of this sort on a USB 1.1 connection. USB 1.1 is limited to around 1 MB/s. The DataTraveler works just fine on USB 1.1. I personally wouldn't want to transfer a large amount of data if it were connected to a USB 1.1 port though. Then again, even on USB 2.0, if you missed it in the Features/Specifications section, "up to 1.5MB/sec. write." That's almost painfully slow. External hard Drives over USB 2.0 generally reach about 15 MB/s in testing that I have done.

    Getting the properties of the drive in Windows XP, shows the drive is using the FAT, or FAT16 file system. Your new drive has a usable space of 488 megabytes for your use. Before you think you are getting ripped off, this is not specific to Kingston, and is the case in all hard drives and other storage devices. "The industry" if you will, generally show capacity in base 10, which is how humans do math. However, computers use base 2 for all their computing tasks. If you want a better explanation, just go right here at about.com for a short article.

    Lastly, in picture 12, a tell tale sign of using a true USB 2.0 compatible device, is that Windows XP will complain if you hook something into a USB 1.1 port that can use USB 2.0.

(11) Drive info	(12) With XP and USB 1.1

    I used the latest version of Sisoftware's Sandra to benchmark this drive. I did both a file system benchmark, and the removable storage benchmark. The results below pretty much speak for themselves, so get clicking...

(13) USB 2.0 File System Benchmark	(14) USB 2.0 Removable Storage Benchmark

(15) USB 1.1 File System Benchmark	(16) USB 1.1 Removable Storage Benchmark

    Of interest though, is that we get about 8 MB/s in the file system benchmark with USB 2.0. A bit higher than expected, since Kingston states 6 MB/s for the read speed. We'll take it though...

    What about real world testing? I did that briefly as well. I won't do a graph or anything, since I did not proceed to test with USB 1.1 this time. I'm afraid all of my hair would be white by the time that would have finished. So, here is what I did. I assembled a folder with a hundred megabytes of files with varying sizes, and copied them to and from the Kingston drive. Copying to the drive: 2 minutes and 25 seconds. I rebooted the PC so that hundred megs of info would clear out of ram, and copied the folder off of the drive. Results: 13 seconds. If you were wondering what I tested on, it was an AMD 3200+, 1 gig ram, 80 gig WD 7200RPM SATA drive. Anyone with a reasonably newer system should see results about the same as what I came up with.


Summary:

    I was a big fan of Kingston back in the days of them making networking cards with lifetime warranties. The KNE-110TX was one of the best affordable network cards. I've had to switch to D-Link, as I'm sure many of you have too. Hmm, got off on a tangent there...Sorry...Yeah, with a 5 year warranty, varying sizes/speeds, and inexpensive in this instance, the DataTraveler should be on your short list of removable flash drives to consider buying. If the slow write speed turns you off, or if you need security, Kingston makes other drives as well. Right here would be more information on the DataTraveler line of drives.



Pros:

  • Five year warranty
  • Affordable
  • Small
  • Fits side by side with USB cables


Cons:

  • Slow writing speed (Easily overlooked for general use.)
  • No driver for 98SE included. (Do people still use 98 anyway?)
 

"Affordable Removable Storage For The Masses!"

Outtakes:

    I actually used my scanner in assisting me in showing the manual, artwork, and so on. I decided not use them in the review, and just use my camera. Since I had already "did the work," I'll share the pictures with you. Enjoy.

(ot1) Front packaging	(ot2) Back packaging

(ot3) User manual	(ot4) Warranty page

Closing:

    Some newer PC's support booting off of a USB device, which could serve many uses. There are even apps for drives like this. One such place is called Tiny Apps. Since these portable storage devices are cheap now, so go get yourself one, and have some fun! I hope you enjoyed this little write up. Thanks for coming by! Until next time...

 

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