USB Flash Drive Roundup - 10/2005
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 4, 2005 11:28 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
PQI I-Stick 2.0
PQI's I-Stick line has the best form factor of all of the drives that we've reviewed here today. In fact, the only reason to complain about the I-Stick's form factor is that it is possibly too small.
If you desire a larger drive or normal USB connector, PQI provides a little USB shell into which you plug the I-Stick. PQI also ships the I-Stick with a little credit card sized holder that can accommodate up to two I-Sticks. The holder itself is thicker than a credit card, but it can definitely fit in a wallet that could handle multiple credit cards stuck in a single slot.
The I-Stick is available in three flavors (in order of ascending performance): the vanilla I-Stick 2.0, the 2.0 Plus and the I-Stick Pro170, with the main differentiating feature between all three drives being their performance.
PQI I-Stick 2.0 Plus
PQI I-Stick Pro170
PQI's I-Stick line has the best form factor of all of the drives that we've reviewed here today. In fact, the only reason to complain about the I-Stick's form factor is that it is possibly too small.
If you desire a larger drive or normal USB connector, PQI provides a little USB shell into which you plug the I-Stick. PQI also ships the I-Stick with a little credit card sized holder that can accommodate up to two I-Sticks. The holder itself is thicker than a credit card, but it can definitely fit in a wallet that could handle multiple credit cards stuck in a single slot.
| PQI I-Stick 2.0 | |
| Sizes Available | 128MB - 1GB |
| Lanyard Included | No |
| USB Extension Cable Included | No |
| Data Encryption | No |
| Password Protection | No |
| Secure + Public Partitions Simultaneously Accessible | N/A |
| Flash Controller | USBest |
| Flash Memory | ? |
| Warranty | Lifetime |
The I-Stick is available in three flavors (in order of ascending performance): the vanilla I-Stick 2.0, the 2.0 Plus and the I-Stick Pro170, with the main differentiating feature between all three drives being their performance.
PQI I-Stick 2.0 Plus
| PQI I-Stick 2.0 Plus | |
| Sizes Available | 128MB - 1GB |
| Lanyard Included | No |
| USB Extension Cable Included | No |
| Data Encryption | No |
| Password Protection | Yes (Windows Only) |
| Secure + Public Partitions Simultaneously Accessible | No |
| Flash Controller | USBest |
| Flash Memory | ? |
| Warranty | Lifetime |
PQI I-Stick Pro170
| PQI I-Stick Pro170 | |
| Sizes Available | 128MB - 1GB |
| Lanyard Included | No |
| USB Extension Cable Included | No |
| Data Encryption | No |
| Password Protection | No |
| Secure + Public Partitions Simultaneously Accessible | N/A |
| Flash Controller | USBest |
| Flash Memory | ? |
| Warranty | Lifetime |
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sprockkets - Thursday, October 6, 2005 - link
Although not reviewed here, I got the A Data key from newegg.com simply because they say it works with Linux on the package. I know any key will, but they are the only ones to have the guts to say it. Thanks for admitting Linux exists. Lifetime warranty too.jgh - Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - link
here is a link for another link, to an app that can make many (but probably not all) usb drives bootable and a couple of other hints/tips.http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/5735">link
O.T. - for some reason i get a message that says i do not have permission to access this forum when i tried to create a new login with my e-mail address. did i get banned or something? i have only posted once (it was about the gta:lcs website). i also cannot log in with the origianl user name and password.
p.s. - it is o.k. to post links like this right?
Toolsac - Tuesday, October 4, 2005 - link
I just wanna say thanks to anand for bring us all so much info on every nook and crany of computing. When ever I am getting ready to upgrade or have a problem with my computer, Anand can help me. THANKS GUYS YOU ROCK!!!GameManK - Tuesday, October 4, 2005 - link
also curious about the memorex drives like the m-flyerhoppa - Tuesday, October 4, 2005 - link
Cool article, and a nice summary of the market (the intro stuff), but seriously, who really cares that much about the perfomance of these things when the entire thing can be written or read in <1 minute anyway. I do love benchmarks though (born and will die a stat-whore)!I have a suggestion for the article: can you post a single picture of all the drives (preferably with a key). I'd like to see what they all look like but I wasn't too crazy at all about clicking through 20 pages. In fact, I only made it through 4.
-andy
vexingv - Friday, October 21, 2005 - link
its an iomega 256mb and claims to be usb2, but is ridiculously slow compared to a generic 64mb drive i have. i've tried transferring about 20mb worth of portable firefox on the two drives side-by-side and the iomega drive took close to 5 minutes while my other drive took less than a minute.these benchmarks are really useful for that purpose of finding drives w/ faster flash memory controllers.
Souka - Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - link
REad the article....less than 1 min? Read it....not happening.Write times had the biggest delta....upto 20x speed difference....
So would you rather watch your drive write data for 3.5mins, or almost an hour?
Far as "clicking through 20 pages" Click once on the "Print this Article"....then you just use page down(or equivalent button) to scroll through
Chriz - Tuesday, October 4, 2005 - link
This was a good roundup, but I was also curious on some other drives that can be found on Newegg. Mainly interested in the Apacer drives and also the Memorex M-flyer...which got a good review in Maximum PC because of the retractable USB connector which seems convenient to me, but I am really not sure on the performance compared to other drives.intellon - Tuesday, October 4, 2005 - link
And why was iPod Shuffle excluded? Is it cuz of security matter/ bigger size/ higher cost? Cuz I use half of my shuffle for transfering files to and from - work, home and school.jkostans - Tuesday, October 4, 2005 - link
Because its an mp3 player. There are plenty of ipod shuffle type players out there which aren't included, some smaller and more compact. I'm sure they would be with the slowest of the slow.