I'll start off by agreeing with the other reviewers here and say that this flash drive really is even smaller than I expected. The smallest I've ever seen actually. The casing is metal which makes this little guy very durable however it wont protect it from water damage. This drive can easily be attached to a keychain to keep it from getting lost which is nice. Write speeds are about average I'd say but that wasn't really a concern for me when purchasing this unit. I've copied a few movies from my PC and plugged this flash drive into my Samsung TV and they played back flawlessly. Overall I'm very pleased with this and will probably buy one or two more down the road.
Update 12-6-10: I've been using this drive every single day for about 7 months now and haven't had any problems to date. I've been using it mostly to play downloaded movies on my HDTV and it's been going through some extremely heavy use and still going strong. HP v115w 16 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive P-FD16GHP115-EF
HP logo is on it though, it's manufactured by PNY.
I gave 4GB version to my sister for her birthday present, and she loved it.
I ordered this 16GB version last week and I got it today.
Actual memory size is 15.0GB.
It was super tiny, cute, and tough enough carry every day on my key chain.
The only thing is the speed.
My PNY 8GB full-size version shows 12mb/s to write, but this one showed only 2~3mb/s.
Maybe it was mistakenly calculated, or something.
Cons - too slow
Pros - everything except the speed
Great drive, tough and very small. It's smaller than you think it will be. I am pleased, speed is pretty quick under Win 7 64... unlike many "keychain" drives that were really too big for your keys or not tough enough, this one is holding up and is not really noticeable on the key chain. I like it, no complaints.
I used this flash drive for a week and I am sad to say that it no longer works. I did not do anything that would break it, however I went to use it the other day and it was not recognized on any computer I plugged it in to (2 Windows and 2 Macs). I am having to send it back and buy a different one. I would caution anyone to be careful when buying this particular flash drive.
UPDATE: So I have had this thing for less than 36 hours and it is dead. Neither my laptop nor my PC can write to this thing or read from it. When I click on the Properties tab it shows that this usb device has a capacity of 0 bytes yet is full. Not sure what this means but I am returning it to the store today for a full refund. I should note, all I did was copy about 3.6gb of music on this and used it in my car stereo three times and now it is dead. I also safely removed the device after writing the mp3s to it and it worked just fine in my car but today it's just dead. HP really does make junk (well PNY but HP let them put their name on it).
My original review when it worked:
The main problem with the v115w is that there is no good way to attach it to your key chain, and this limits its portability, the only thing it had going for it. The little metal rings that come with it are flimsy and probably wouldn't last a week before the usb stick falls right off your key chain. I just removed the very flimsy metal ring and used the slightly sturdier ring and the metal clasp but I am still not confident this thing is securely attached to my keys. I spent about an hour trying to rig something better but the hole on the usb drive is so small that only very flimsy metal rings will fit in it. Poor design choice on HP or PNY's part (this is a PNY product with HPs name on it). If PNY would have made a larger hole so that we could use sturdier metal rings that would have solved this entire issue. But in the end, we are left with "portable" flash drives that will probably cause us more worry than it's worth.
I cannot comment on the write speed of this unit as my old laptop has usb 1.0 so of course it took about 2 hours to transfer only 3.6 gb of mp3s and wma files. This usb stick does work in the head unit in my car, but with nearly 4 gigs of music on this thing it takes my stereo about two minutes to begin playing, good for road trips, not so great for a quick drive to the store.
Also, confirmed that this drive will fail the Xbox 360's data loss test, which is not a great sign of things to come, but from what I can tell pretty much every usb stick fails this test, except for the severely over priced sandisk stick with the Xbox logo on it.
My only other comment (gripe) is that the contacts on the v115w are not durable. I plugged it into my Xbox and removed it about one minute later and the gold plated contacts were already scratched up. Not alot of scratches but two very deep ones. Then, I plugged it into my laptop and copied 3.6gbs of music to it, removed it, now all of the contacts were completely scratched. I have other usb devices at home and work that I have been using for years and the contacts on these are nearly perfect or with only a few light scratches. This is rather annoying since the main reason I wanted a swivel usb drive is so that the contacts would be protected when dangling from my key chain, but just plugging and unplugging this device is enough to scratch up the contacts. If I wanted scratched contacts I would have gotten a IamAkey, at least those can be securely attached to your keys!
Anyways, it is super cute and tiny and my old laptop was able to see the device instantly but unfortunately,the two main selling points for me 1) portable and 2)durable are not really something this device has to offer.
I was very excited when the v115w arrived, much smaller than I expected, very sturdy exterior, but w/o any really good way to put it on a keychain (the loop hole on the end is VERY small)
Of course, 35 days after receiving it (just outside the return/replace window), it just dies. I could glue a usb interface onto a rock and it would do the same thing as my little $40 waste of money.
I ordered and love Patriot X-Porter Mini 8 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive PSF8GMUSB
Having spent tens of thousands of dollars on HP items over the past decade, I was really disappointed with this product. Seems like outsourcing & rebranding are the wave of the future....Caveat emptor - 16 Gb - 16gb - Usb Flash Drive - Flash Drive'
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