Flashes Of Brilliance

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday December 22, 2008

Nick Ross

Memory sticks used to be the oddities of the tech world. They've come a long way, writes Nick Ross.

Not so long ago memory keys (aka thumb drives, flash drives or memory sticks) were something of a luxury. They cost the earth, were heralded for being able to store information that would normally fit on 100 (count 'em) floppy disks and would cost only a couple of hundred dollars for about 100MB.

Now they're so cheap that they're not worth looking at unless they can hold at least 8GB. However, such is the improvement in memory keys that even 8GB looks small. So does 16GB: that's the capacity of this month's cheapy option. They've hit 64GB and the price has decreased as fast as the capacity has increased. Because of this, what they are used for has bloomed.

With multiple gigabytes of information, you can store libraries of movies, several high-definition videos, archive most of the photos you've ever taken and carry all of your music everywhere you go . . . on your keyring. Unthinkable only a couple of years ago.

Such is their potential, many other devices are making use of them. High-definition televisions now frequently come with USB slots so you can plug in a USB key and play your video. Heck, you can even buy a spare one and leave it connected to your television, turning it in to a kind of media server that plays music and turns your photos into slideshows when you're bored with the scheduled viewing.

A range of special programs have been made for them and many are free. If you're worried about doing banking or email or messaging on a stranger's or web cafe's PC, you can plug in a USB key and use a pre-installed web browser program to surf the internet without leaving a trace of anything on that computer.

You can get antivirus programs to scan a PC before you use it, set passwords to ensure data doesn't fall in to the wrong hands and easily set up automatic backups. The latter means you can simply plug a memory key into your computer and it will backup your most important files, or simply let you transfer them between work and home. There are also contact management software and mobile internet bookmarks (some free), which mean you can use any PC to carry on working. There is even a version of OpenOffice, the free office software, which can be installed on your memory key and lets you work happily on any computer that you plug it in to.

If you're really geeky, you can actually install a whole operating system onto a key and then plug it into a PC and bypass whatever else is installed on it - like a mobile brain for a stranger's computer. Though be warned about trying this: it's one of those simple processes that rightfully scares the pants off technophobes due to fiddling with a computer's start-up settings. Get it wrong and it won't work.

Some keys come with USB extension cables to help reach hidden or recessed slots. Sometimes the keys themselves have physical features to set them apart. Some have fingerprint readers for security, others are designed to be protected from moisture and dust, while others are made to near military standards of indestructibility.

But, with such huge capacities lending themselves to large file transfers we also expect them to be fast and speed can vary . . . massively. It's no fun waiting 15 minutes for a 5GB video to copy to your key, when your friend's does it in 30 seconds.

As such, we tested all of these keys by transferring 500MB of media and music files to and from a computer to check for read and write speeds. We picked four of the newest models and tested them for performance and value in order to determine our choice for best all-rounder.

THE CONTENDERS

KINGSTON DATATRAVELER 150 32GB

Price $149 Rating 4.5/5

kingston.com

Kingston's new DataTraveler is as basic as they come, save for its pretty coloured label. However, 32GB is not to be sniffed at and the $149 price tag makes it attractive. The best news is that it was the fastest in our tests: writing 500MB in 45 seconds and reading it back in 22 seconds. The others were much slower. There are faster drives on the market but not with this capacity and value.

CORSAIR FLASH SURVIVOR 32GB

Price $229 Rating 4/5

corsair.com

Corsair's Flash Survivor is easily the most interesting of the group. It comes screwed into a rugged metal tube which makes it waterproof to 200 metres and shock-resistant. It comes with a 10-year warranty and a quick Google search will yield videos of it being stamped on, dropped out of windows, run over and drowned. But it's a bit slow.

CORSAIR FLASH VOYAGER 64GB

Price $399 Rating 3.5/5

corsair.com

Corsair's Voyager isn't as rugged as the Survivor but it's no weakling. Its rubber casing is strong enough to be shockproof and it comes with a 10-year warranty. It's the biggest physically and in capacity thanks to its massive 64GB of memory. But the Corsair products were the slowest.

So speed dents its value.

LEXAR JUMPDRIVE FIREFLY 16GB

Price $101 Rating 4/5

lexar.com

Lexar's new FireFly "only" has a 16GB capacity but it's physically the smallest drive by far. It comes with a large clip and is reasonable value at $101. It was also the second fastest on test: one-third slower than the Kingston but twice as fast as the Corsair pair. We sometimes worry a leash attached to the lid means the key might fall out but the FireFly feels small and secure.

THE VERDICT

The Corsair Survivor will be a tempting choice for some, thanks to its strength, but the winner has to be the Kingston. It's not particularly exciting but is noticeably the fastest on test, is the cheapest price per gigabyte and comes with a decent capacity. It doesn't come with portable software but it will work with the vast quantities of easy-to-download applications. A worthy winner.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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