This Kingston DataTraveler DT101 Gen2 32GB USB flash drive has a very nice compact design. It is about the same size as the SanDisk Cruzer Micro (with the USB port retracted). See the size comparison picture I uploaded to Customer Images section. What cannot be seen from the picture is that the Kingston drive is slightly thicker. That makes it impossible to insert two Kingston flash drives into two adjacent USB ports, whereas two Sandisk drives can be stacked one on top of another.
I benchmarked the Kingston DT101 G2 flash drive as soon as I received it. The initial result I got, using the free "Flash Memory Toolkit" program, was not very impressive. It shows that for smaller files of 1-5MB, the write speed is only 5.7 - 6.2MB/s (see the Customer Image section for screenshot). In contrast, the Transcend 16 GB JetFlash 500 was able to achieve higher speed of 6.8MB/s (for 1MB file) to 11.3MB/s (for 5MB file).
For transferring very large files, however, this Kingston drive really shines. I benchmarked its read/write speed using 1GB video files, and was able to achieve up to 11.4MB/s in write, and 20.2MB/s in read. This is over twice as fast as its rated speed, which claims just 5MB/s write and 10MB/s read. In contrast, the Transcend drive only achieved 7.5MB/s in write and 13.4MB/s in read, under the same test conditions.
In summary, the Kingston DT101 G2 flash drive may not be suitable for tasks which require frequent read/write of smaller files, such as using it for daily backup or as a 'ReadyBoost' device. But for transferring large chunk of data, such as storing temporary video files for playback on my WD TV Live Media Player, it performs the job really well. I consider this product a very good value, especially at its present low cost of just $1.60 per GB.
Some additional notes:
- The good thing about USB flash drive is that: the unit cost ($/GB) drops by half every year. So I can get this 32GB flash drive for about the same price I paid for a 2GB drive four years ago. The bad thing is that: no matter how large the drive capacity, I always manage to fill it up to the brim in seemingly no time.
- The capacity for this Kingston '32GB' flash drive, as reported by my computer, is 29.7GB. Note that this is actually normal, because 1GB to computer people means 2 to the power of 30, which is about 7.4% greater than 1 billion. So 29.7GB translates to approximately 32,000,000,000 bytes, which means '32GB' according to marketing people.
- This Kingston flash drive came pre-loaded with 'urDrive' software, similar to the infamous 'U3' software for previous generations of Sandisk flash drives. I have no intention to use urDrive, so I renamed the 'Autorun.inf' file (found on the root directory) to 'Autorun._inf'. That way, I don't have to be bothered by it ever again - but it is still available in case I changed my mind.
- The drive is pre-formated in FAT32 file system for maximum compatibility. That means its largest file size is limited to 4GB. If you need to transfer files larger than 4GB, you have to reformat this drive to NTFS. Be warned that doing so wipes out all existing files, including urDrive. Kingston Digital 32 GB USB 2.0 Hi-speed Datatraveler Flash Drive DT101G2/32GBZ, Purple
I got this flash drive as a gift from my aunt. It's 32 GB!!! Could you imagine it two years ago? I use it to store my school work, music collection, photo album, HD videos and so on. I would like to share my experience with everyone after using it for more than three months. This USB drive simply works!
Pros:
This flash drive is fast and huge. 32gb is a lot of space for a small device like this. Nice looking and elegant design. The most important one is its affordable price.
Cons:
None.
If you need a small usb flash drive that you can carry it every day in your pocket with huge storage space, this is the one.
This is an excellent flash drive! Kingston made a great innovation by integrating the cover for the usb port with a swinging metal shield. That way, I long longer have to worry about losing those small caps.
In the metal piece, there is also a hole at the top so that you can attach a string to it, some people like to hang their flash drives around their necks (so they are always sure where it is).
This drive is very reliable, the Reading speed is 10MB/sec, while the Writing speed is 5MB/sec.
I highly recommend this Flash Drive.
I've only been using it a few days, and I can already tell it's faster than any of my other drives. And for the price, ya can't beat it. Unfortunately, I could only find it in purple, but I can live with that. :)
I was looking for a capless flash drive with a lot of storage that I could attach to my keychain. This one seemed to be the only one that met that description, so I went for it. I've only had it about a week, but transferring my files to it was really fast and the design seems sturdy enough to last me a while. My only criticism is that the loop for attaching it to a keychain or something could be a tad bigger. I'm going to have to stop by the hardware store to pick up a slim keyring if I want to attach it and well, since that was part of the appeal of the design, I had to knock a star. Otherwise, I'd recommend this one. I looked at them all and for the price, speed, storage size, and design, well, this one's the clear winner.
The transfer rate may vary based on the capability of your computer and such. Mine writes to the drive at an impressive average of about 15MB/s and reads around 25MB/s. Presently, Amazon's description states much lower transfer rates, but it also appears to be referring to the 16GB model.
The form factor is nice. It's very compact and should work well even where you have relatively narrow USB port access.
The swiveling cover is an interesting concept. I think it would be greatly improved if it were designed to actually stop in the closed and fully-opened positions. Instead, it will spin a full 360 degrees without any "stops." It does have some tension, of course, so it's not just flopping around. But if you drop it in your pocket for instance, the cap may not stay perfectly in the closed position for long.
During drive access, there is a green LED that lights up in the center of the bezel (the round area in the middle of the drive where the cap is mounted).
There's not likely to be an offering of different colors for this drive, as Kingston has opted to utilize specific colors to quickly identify the various storage capacities of the product line.
The bottom line is that I'm very pleased with the drive overall - my minor gripe with the swiveling cover notwithstanding.'
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