USB Flash Drives Reviews

The reviews below are assigned ratings by ConsumerSearch. These ratings are based on credibility in testing, evaluating and identifying the best USB Flash Drives. See our ratings criteria

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USB Flash Drives Reviews Reviewed
Review Ratings	Citation	CS Credibility Rating	USB Flash Drives Ratings Comments on Reviews
1. Phoronix.com	Memory Michael Larabel As of Jan. 2008		Michael Larabel reviews as many flash drives as anyone, and the reviews are very good. Benchmark tests are published. Other testing, such as for durability, isn't addressed. Relevant comparisons are exceptional, and the conclusions decisively position each product. Ratings are high, but with sufficient variation, and one recently reviewed USB drive isn't especially recommended. Two models are selected as Editor's Choice products. Larabel raves about the Corsair Flash Survivor GT in its own review and others, but admits that the price is high. For readers who balk at the price or don't care about factors that make it the best, Larabel offers alternatives.
2. Scot's Newsletter	Lexar's 4 GB JumpDrive Lightning USB Drive Excels -- Top Product! Scot Finnie Dec. 2007		Scot Finnie, editor of the IT trade journal Computerworld by day, runs a newsletter as a side project. With this issue, the newsletter shifts to a blog format, which simplifies user feedback. Finnie spent months searching for the best cross-platform flash drive, and tested models for weeks in real use to reach a conclusion. After trying the Lexar USB drive for six weeks, he concludes it is better than the Corsair 2 GB Flash Padlock. A comparison chart shows the speeds Finnie achieved in tests. The Lexar drive is ten times faster than the Corsair, but just a little faster than the Kingston 4 GB DataTraveler Secure. The IronKey 4 GB Secure Flash Drive is also tested.
3. Trusted Reviews	Storage Editors of TrustedReviews.com As of Jan. 2008		TrustedReviews.com is one of the most prolific reviewers of flash drives, including nine in the past 18 months. Of those, one earns an Editor's Choice award and two earn Recommended ratings. Comparisons are excellent, and augmented by overall and subcategory ratings. The verdicts include reasons for buying the reviewed drives or considering others. Reviews of USB drives have recently been improved with publication of graphs that show relative performance. Although the website is British, most reviewed products are sold in the U.S. as well.

USB Flash Drives Reviews above this line are significantly better than reviews below.

Review Ratings	Citation	CS Credibility Rating	USB Flash Drives Ratings Comments on Reviews

4. BigBruin.com	Storage Category Brian Anderson, Jason Kohrs As of Jan. 2008		Big Bruin's reviews are amazingly comprehensive. All aspects of performance and use are evaluated. Performance test results are published, with some showing benchmark comparisons. Other comparisons are general, but also helpful. The weakness here is that there are fewer reviews than the sites we rate higher. In addition, the authors don't do a good job explaining how ratings are assigned. The Corsair Flash Survivor GT 8 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive, OCZ Technology Mega-Kart 8 GB USB Flash Drive and Corsair Flash Padlock 2 GB USB Drive are the most recently reviewed USB drives.
5. Tom’s Hardware Guide	Summer 2006 Memory Stick Fashion Show Patrick Schmid, Sebastian Veltze Aug. 16, 2006		In this comprehensive, but older review, Patrick Schmid and Sebastian Veltze describe 12 USB drives with capacities ranging from 512 MB to 8 GB. Comparative performance test results are presented in multiple bar graphs. Some reviewed drives have U3 software (allowing users to load browsers and other programs). Since all tested flash drives performed well, a concluding section makes user preference and budget the criteria for choosing a drive rather than drive performance. But the authors still name their favorites, including the SanDisk Cruzer Titanium, while commending the novel form factors of the OCZ Mini-Kart and PQI Card Drive.
6. I4U News.com	Peripheral Reviews Shane McGlaun As of Jan. 2008		I4U News occasionally reviews USB flash drives. Testing is conducted by Shane McGlaun, who reviews computer products for several technology websites. It is a little hard to find flash drive reviews at I4U News because the few that they do are lumped together with other peripheral devices. However, it is worth the effort as the reviews are comparative and balanced. Testing is described and documented, and products are rated on a one to ten scale. The OCZ ATV Turbo 4 GB Flash Drive, Corsair 8 GB Flash Survivor GT and Cyber Snipa Dog Tags are reviewed this year.

USB Flash Drives Reviews above this line are significantly better than reviews below.

Review Ratings	Citation	CS Credibility Rating	USB Flash Drives Ratings Comments on Reviews

7. EverythingUSB.com	USB Flash Drives Scott Clark As of Jan. 2008		As in other categories, Everything USB's reviews are comprehensive and exceptionally well balanced. Testing is superb, and documented in detail. Test results and charted data form the basis for comparison, but there are no ratings. Everything USB thoroughly tests the ability of flash drives to withstand physical abuse. Illustrations are helpful; for example, they show the relative size of a number of USB drives. Reviews are somewhat difficult to access (not all link from this main page). This year, Everything USB reviews 2, 4 and 8 GB Corsair flash drives (in individual reviews) and the 4 GB SanDisk Cruzer Contour. Kingston, Lexar and PQI drives were reviewed in 2006.
8. MaximumPC.com	Reviews: Storage Gordon Mah Ung As of Jan. 2008		Maximum PC regularly covers USB flash drives. The reviews are short but well balanced. Each drive receives a single rating. However, the ratings don't always dovetail with review copy, and four of the last seven USB flash drives reviewed are rated 9/10, so identifying the best products is a challenge. Reader comments add some enlightenment.
9. NetGuide.co.nz	Buyers Guide: USB Thumb Drives Tony Brisciani Mar. 2, 2006		After a brief comparison of USB 1.1 with 2.0, the reviewer examines four thumb drives, rating them on a one- to five-star basis. Reviews are concise, with pros and cons of each drive carefully outlined. The products are directly compared, but the review is so old that none of the USB flash drives have capacities greater than 2 GB. The top-rated product was never sold in the U.S. The other reviewed drives are the Imation USB 2.0 Flash Drive Mini 512 MB, 2 GB Lexar JumpDrive Lightning and SanDisk Cruzer Mini 256 MB Flash.
10. Register Hardware.co.uk	Latest Storage Reviews Tony Smith As of Jan. 2008		Register Hardware infrequently reviews USB flash drives. The only drives reviewed this year are the IronKey 1 GB Secure USB flash drive and SanDisk Cruzer Pro, both of which have security features and are oriented to the business, rather than consumer, marketplace. The IronKey 1 GB Secure USB flash drive has hardware encryption, which is said to be a unique feature. The reviews are thorough, balanced and comparative, but are most useful for those interested in security features.
11. Geek.com	USB Flash Drive reviews Editors of Geek.com As of Jan. 2008		Geek.com occasionally reviews USB flash drives. The reviews are good but uneven, due to the use of multiple reviewers. Some reviews are comparative and some have ratings, but the mishmash doesn't adequately guide readers to the best USB flash drives. Balance, depth and product positioning are all very good. The OCZ ATV Turbo 4 GB USB Flash Drive and IronKey Secure USB Flash Drive are recently reviewed. The former is extremely oriented to consumers as it has a vivid yellow and black design, while the latter is strictly a business product.

USB Flash Drives Reviews above this line are significantly better than reviews below.

Review Ratings	Citation	CS Credibility Rating	USB Flash Drives Ratings Comments on Reviews

12. Newegg.com	USB Flash Drives Contributors to Newegg.com As of Jan. 2008		This retail site allows users to rate their gear. Since the site targets builders, the reviews are somewhat more technical and knowledgeable than on some other user-review sites. The most impressive ratings go to the Corsair Flash Voyager 2 GB, which is top-rated by three-quarters of about 450 owners. It's a three-time Newegg Customer Choice Award winner (and current winner) in the USB Flash Drives category. Also highly rated by owners are the Corsair Flash Voyager GT 8 GB Flash Drive and Kingston DataTraveler DT1 1 GB Flash Drive. About 50 percent of those writing about the Super Talent 16 GB Flash Drive rate it poorly.
13. Wize.com	Flash Memory Editors of Wize.com As of Jan. 2008		Wize.com uses a proprietary formula to rate products based on professional and consumer reviews found elsewhere on the Internet. However, at least when it comes to USB flash drives, few professional reviews are listed. Since all comments are linked back to their original sources, this is a good shortcut to finding user reviews.
14. IT Reviews.com	Disk Drive Reviews Editors of ITReviews.co.uk As of Jan. 2008		Britain's IT Reviews periodically reviews USB flash drives. The reviews are short, unsigned and focused on features. Performance is not measured, and drives are not rated or ranked. Considering the performance and usage variables covered by the best reviewers, this website's reviews generally come up short. Reviews this year are of the Memorex Ultra TravelDrive, Kingston 1 GB DataTraveler ReadyFlash and PNY 2 GB Outdoor Attaché.
15. Pocket-Lint.co.uk	Hardware reviews Davey Winder As of Jan. 2008		Pocket-lint rarely reviews USB flash drives, and the few write-ups here are entirely subjective. Speeds are cited for one drive, but the implication is that these are the manufacturer's specifications, rather than measured performance. The two drives reviewed this year are arguably niche products. The SanDisk Cruzer Professional USB drive has security features for businesses, and the Yego USB thumb drive and hub is a Y-shaped unit with USB ports on the external ends. Davey Winder fails to explain the benefit of using a removable, portable product as a USB hub.
16. Extreme Tech.com	Geek Gift Guide 2007 Editors of ExtremeTech.com Dec. 7, 2007		In its holiday fun gift guide, ExtremeTech recommends the SanDisk Cruzer Micro, Contour and Titanium USB Flash Drives. The drives are recommended because they can run programs. Other drives that also run software aren't mentioned. Testing is fine and the reviews are balanced. However, the drives aren't rated. The Titanium and Micro are compared with each other. ExtremeTech notes that few programs can run on these drives. Most (if not all) of the programs listed are free, which raises the unanswered question: why wouldn't someone just download the software to a hard drive?
17. GoodGearGuide.com	USB Flash Drives Editors of GoodGearGuide.com As of Jan. 2008		Australia's GoodGearGuide.com and its sister publication, Australian PC World, sporadically review USB drives. Testing is shallow and the reviews are superficial with a strong emphasis on appearance. Dave Jansen harps about one drive being cute, while Chris Jager says another "would look right at home in somebody's makeup bag." In another review, Jager criticizes other drives for looking "boring" or "stupid." The focus on eye candy over practicality and performance might be more acceptable with more substance in the reviews. The comment, "While we can't attest to the unit's durability, the titanium casing certainly looks robust enough," is shallow considering how many other reviewers test durability.
18. Amazon.com	USB Flash Drives Contributors to Amazon.com As of Jan. 2008		Owners posting reviews to Amazon.com aren't usually testing drives in a scientific way, but this is a great site for identifying ease of use or reliability problems. Most USB flash drives get good reviews overall. The SanDisk Cruzer Micro, Kingston DataTraveler and DataTraveler II get especially high scores among USB drives with many reviews. Several owners say the PNY Attaché is slow, and owners of the SanDisk Cruzer Titanium note that there's no protection on the USB connector to keep out dust, yet these drives still have high average ratings.
19. PC Magazine >> Details/Subscribe	Flash Drive reviews Dan Costa As of Jan. 2008		PC Magazine used to review USB flash drives, but hasn't reviewed one since April 2006. The Memorex U3 smart Mini TravelDrive, reviewed more than two years ago, is the most recently reviewed drive that is still available. Of course, the context (the competition and maximum storage capacities) has changed considerably since that review. The Memorex unit is selected as an Editor's Choice. The 256 MB size is tested, but Dan Costa says sizes up to 2 GB are available. By today's standards, 2 GB drives are small. A single rating is the only method of comparison. Performance isn't measured.
20. CNet.com	USB Flash Drives Felisa Yang As of Jan. 2008		It's been a long time since CNet.com last looked at USB flash drives, and the reviews that are here are short and primarily focused on features. Performance is tested, but not directly compared to the competition. The single speed measurement is the only thing we found in CNet's reviews that you wouldn't also find on the manufacturers' websites.
21. Consumer Reports >> Details/Subscribe	Flash Drives Editors of Consumer Reports Oct. 2007		Consumer Reports forgoes its typical product testing and evaluation in favor of a largely generic report on features. No specific products are named, though "popular" brands are listed, with comments about which ones are known for durability or security. In the end, there's nothing here that can't be learned from other, more helpful reviewers. Unlike most of Consumer Reports' online content, this article can be read for free by non-subscribers.

USB Flash Drives Reviews above this line are significantly better than reviews below.

Review Ratings	Citation	CS Credibility Rating	USB Flash Drives Ratings Comments on Reviews

22. DigitalProducer.com	Kanguru Bio Drive John Virata Sept. 28, 2006		A fingerprint reader is the distinguishing feature of the Kanguru Bio Drive. In this case, it's a 508 dpi biometric sensor that makes the user swipe their finger before granting access to encrypted information. Password access enables you to bypass the fingerprint reader. Reviewer John Virata examines this feature and supports its usefulness in a world of ever-increasing security concerns. He doesn't discuss other Bio Drive performance issues, however, which is a big deal because other reviews say security software is a major performance drag.
23. David Strom's Web Informant	SanDisk U3 Cruzer Titanium USB Thumb Drive David Strom Sept. 6, 2006		Reviewer David Strom provides a generic discussion of the Cruzer's U3 capabilities while mentioning some of its bundled portable applications such as Skype, Trillian/AIM and a limited subscription to avast! antivirus software. He mentions that ThinkFree makes a $50 portable version of Office software for the Cruzer, and that U3 versions of the Firefox browser are also available. Evaluation is minimal, and no other products are mentioned.