Kingston DataTraveler 150 USB Flash Drive

Model: Kingston DataTraveler 150
Manufacturer: Kingston
Provided By: Kingston

As the world’s largest independent manufacturer of memory products, Kingston Technology doesn't need much of an introduction. The company got its start in 1987, when the computer industry was suffering from a severe shortage of surface-mount memory chips. To provide a solution, Kingston's founders designed a new Single In-Line Memory Module (SIMM) that used readily available, older technology through-hole components. Today, Kingston offers more than 2,000 memory products for everything from computers, servers and printers to MP3 players, digital cameras and cell phones.

This fall, Kingston announced its new high capacity USB flash drive, the DataTraveler 150. Available in 32GB and 64GB capacities, the DataTraveler 150 (DT150) gives users the ability to transport and share entire libraries of music, photos, documents and video on a device no bigger than a pocketknife. Kingston’s new drive is also compatible with Windows 2000/XP/Vista, Mac OS X and Linux and is backed by a five-year warranty as well as 24/7 tech support.

Packaging and Contents:

The DataTraveler 150 comes packaged as shown above. While the plastic bubble gives you a great view of the drive, it can be a little hard to get open without the help of a sharp knife or razor. Once opened though, you have access to the contents. Along with the DT150, you get a small lanyard which can be used to attach the drive to your keychain.

Physical Features:

The DT150 is definitely one of the larger flash drives in Kingston's lineup. Measuring 3.06" (77.9mm) long, 0.9" (22mm) wide and 0.47" (12.05mm) thick, its about the size of a pocketknife or disposable lighter. While you probably wouldn't want it hanging off of your keychain, it easily fits in a pocket or purse.

The body of the DT150 is constructed of lightweight, black plastic which is covered in bright orange, or, in the case of 64GB version, red panels. To prevent it from getting lost, the cap can be placed on the opposite end of the drive, similar to the cap on a pen. The LED is located on the top of the DT150, on the end opposite from the one with the USB connector. While not very impressive in these pictures, the LED lights up blue whenever the drive is accessed.

Installation:

As with most USB flash drives, the DataTraveler 150 was very easy to install. Those running Windows 2000, XP or Vista can simply plug them into any available USB port on their computer. If the computer is already turned on, plug and play will automatically detect the drive.

If installed correctly, the DT150 should show up in the Device Manager. Under Windows XP, the drive is identified as a "Kingston DataTraveler 150".

The DT150 comes formatted with FAT32, giving you about 30GB of usable space. If you plan to store files larger than 4GB in size, you'll want to convert or reformat the drive with NTFS.

The test system used in this review was a Dell OptiPlex 755. The computer came equipped with an Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz CPU, 2GB of DDR2 800MHz memory, a Western Digital WD800JD 80GB SATA hard drive and an ATI Radeon HD 2400XT 256MB video card. For the operating system, I installed a fresh copy of Windows XP with Service Pack 3.

To test the performance of the DataTravler 150, I ran a series of benchmarks using HD Tach RW 3.0.4.0 and SiSoftware Sandra Professional Business XII.SP2c.  To get a feel for the "real world" performance, I also copied and pasted 500MB of random files and directories in Windows Explorer. For comparison, I've also included test results from Imation's Atom and Memorex's Mini TravelDrive.

HD Tach RW 3.0.4.0:

Using HD Tach, we can benchmark a drive's read, write and burst speeds as well as its seek times and CPU usage.

The DataTraveler 150 performed surprisingly well here. Looking at the screenshot above, you can see that it had average read and write speeds of  33.1 MB/s and 14.6 MB/s, respectively, as well as a burst speed of 35 MB/s.

SiSoft Sandra File System Benchmark:

While I am not a big fan of SiSoftware Sandra's optical drive benchmarks, it is a great tool if you want to test a system's performance quickly and easily. One of Sandra's more useful tests is the File System benchmark. This benchmark gives each drive an overall score, or "Drive Index," based on the results of its read and write tests.

The DT150 performed very well when reading and doing sequential writes. Unfortunately, it wasn't nearly as fast as the TravelDrive when doing buffered and random writes.

SiSoftware Sandra Removable Storage/Flash Devices Benchmark:

Designed with removable storage and flash devices in mind, this benchmark tests a drive's read, write and delete performance using six different file sizes (512 Bytes, 32kB, 256kB, 2MB, 64MB and 256MB).  The results are then given in both operations per minute and the corresponding net transfer rate in kB/second. This benchmark also computes an "Endurance Factor," representing the wear and life expectancy of flash devices.

While there were a few cases where the DT150 lagged behind the other drives, it had a clear advantage when writing larger files, especially those 64MB and 256MB in size.

The DT150 yielded some mixed results in this test. While it completed an impressive number of operations with 2MB, 64MB and 256MB files, its lackluster performance with 512B and 32kB files had a negative effect on its combined index score.

The Endurance Factor represents the wear and life expectancy of a flash device. According to SiSoft, this number is computed by "dividing the average performance (normal condition, i.e. sequential write) to the lowest performance (high-stress condition, i.e. same block re-write)."

"Real World" Benchmark:

To test the "real world" performance of Kingston's new flash drive, I copied and pasted 500 MB worth of randomly generated files and directories. All of the files are between 10 bytes and 32MB in size and no more than four directories deep.

For some reason I expected the DT150 to pull through and take the top spot in this test. As you can see, that wasn't the case. While the fastest of the three drives when reading, it was three seconds slower than the Imation Atom when writing.

Conclusion:

With the DataTraveler 150, Kingston has joined the ranks of companies offering high-capacity USB flash drives. While not the smallest or most feature packed drive out there, the DT150 delivers what most consumers are looking for: lots of storage at a reasonable price. Kingston's new drive also performed fairly well for the most part. The DT150 reached some impressive speeds when reading and writing large files, but lagged behind some other drives when working with smaller files. Nevertheless, most consumers probably won't notice this during everyday use.

The DataTraverler 150 is available now in 32GB and 64GB capacities. Suggested retail prices range from $116 to $177 depending on the size. However, the DT150 can be picked up for considerably less through some of the vendors on Pricegrabber.

Highs:

• Large capacity lets you store lots of stuff
• Impressive speeds when reading and writing large files
• Compatible with Windows 2000/XP/Vista, Mac OS X and Linux
• Five year warranty
• Reasonably priced

Lows:

• No data encryption software
• Not as fast when reading and writing small files
• Does not support Windows ReadyBoost