Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 G3 – Review
Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 G3 Review
I have to say, it’s pretty metal!
USB Flash Drives are ubiquitous, and are available in storage sizes that only a few years ago you would have struggled to get in a full size hard drive and it’s easy to see that things have come a long way when you can fit up to 512GB of storage in your pocket.
Before getting the review started, let me say that this review may be a little bit shorter than the ones you might be used to reading as there is only so much you can do to review a USB Flash Drive. Secondly I would like to thank Kingston, for providing me with a 32GB Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 G3 to review!
About Kingston
Since 1987, Kingston has been known for the highest quality memory products available. We recognise the important role memory plays in computing productivity and take the necessary steps to guarantee a reliable memory product.
Superior quality: Kingston® qualifies all components and tests all modules at all stages of production.
Guaranteed compatibility: Kingston customises its memory and guarantees 100 per cent compatibility.
Convenience: Kingston provides a complete range of memory solutions at competitive prices for thousands of systems.
Stability: Established in 1987, Kingston has grown to be the largest independent memory module manufacturer in the industry.
Reliability: Its commitment to using the highest-quality components and to 100 per cent testing makes Kingston memory the most reliable on the market.
Expertise: Kingston is involved in the DRAM process from the dicing of the wafer to encasing the integrated circuits and from assembling the module to testing the finished product.
Warranty: Kingston offers a lifetime warranty on all memory modules and Flash cards, a three-year warranty on SSDNow drives and a five-year warranty on DataTraveler USB Flash drives.
Specifications
| Capacities: | 32GB, 64GB, 128GB |
| Speed: | USB 3.0: up to 150MB/s read and 70MB/s writeUSB 2.0: up to 30MB/s read and 20MB/s write |
| Backwards compatible: | With USB 2.0 |
| Practical: | Durable casing with a solid lanyard loop |
| Dimensions: | Without key ring: (68.40mm x 22.76mm x 11.6mm)With key ring: (85.40mm x 22.76mm x 11.6mm) |
| Operating Temperature: | (0° to 60°C) |
| Storage Temperature: | (-20°C to 85°C) |
| Compatible with: | Windows® 8, Windows 7 (SP1), Windows Vista® (SP1, SP2), Windows XP (SP3), Mac OS X v.10.5.x+, Linux v.2.6.x+ (USB 3.0 connectivity requires a USB 3.0 port |
| Warranty: | Five-year warranty, free technical support |
The Packaging and the Product
One thing that gets me annoyed is the packaging used by flash drive manufacturers and Kingston is no different at least with this model. It comes encased in that annoying heat sealed plastic, and does not have any perforations to make the product easily accessible. Other Kingston flash drives come packaged in an easier to open cardboard packaging and I wish Kingston had done this here.
Thankfully there is a bit of a trick to opening this sort of packaging, using a trusty tin-opener, you can cut the edges to access your lovely new USB Flash drive.
Once you get it out of the fortress of packaging and get the drive out you will notice that it is a bit bulkier than other flash drives on sale. Although because of the metal casing, this certainly feels a big step above in quality.
This Kingston DataTraveler features a retractable design removing the chance of ever losing the cap, which is certainly one of the great annoyances about owning a USB Flash drive.
The retracting mechanism is also nice and smooth, clicking into place when covering the actual USB portion of the drive.
Metally Goodness
On the back end, you have a little key ring hook, which allows you to connect the drive to your key ring if so inclined.
The DataTraveler Ultimate has a nice blue LED which is on the top of the unit (The white dot in the image above) and surprisingly isn’t actually blinding in its output, like some previous flash drives I have had the pleasure of using.
Testing
After getting the DataTraveler Ultimate out of its packaging, I figured I should put the transfer speed claims to the test, so I fired up Crystal Disk Info which itself is a very nice piece of freeware software and plugged the DataTraveler in.
The Specs of the system used are quite modest, featuring a Gigabyte Z77 motherboard, 8GB of DDR3 memory and an Intel Core i3 2100 processor.
The packaging of the DataTraveler states that the flash drive can perform up to 150MB/s Read and 70MB/s write speeds. After running the test with five passes I can happily say that the DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 G3 exceeds that with some gusto. Which you can see in the test results below.
USB 3 Speeds
In the Sequential test, on a USB 3 Port the drive blew both speed ratings out of the water, hitting 171MB/s read and 88MB/s write speed.
On a USB 2 port the drive similarly exceeded the paper speeds, coming in with a 35MB/s Read and 29MB/s write, which are both nicely above the 30MB/s read and 20MB/s write Kingston state.
USB 2 Speeds
With large amounts of smaller files, the DataTraveler’s performance does take a hit but this is common with all types of storage devices, as they have to work harder, it is however certainly nice to see that the Max speeds are above the rated speed.
Final Conclusion
After putting the drive to the test I can say that I am extremely impressed. It has a very nice design that I feel could really withstand the test of time, the metal casing especially adds to both the aesthetics and the strength of the unit as a whole to make for a very nice product.
The physical size of the Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate may be an issue for people who use it on a key ring with lots of other things, and personally I would advise taking a look at other drives if this is a requirement. If however that is not an issue for you, it becomes easy to recommend the Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 G3, for its solid appearance and quality feel.
Kingston themselves back the DataTraveler with a nice and long 5 year warranty. Once again, I would like to thank them for providing the item to review.
You can find out more over at http://www.kingston.com/en/usb/personal_business#DTU30G3
And you can purchase one over at CCL Online By Clicking Here
[schema type=”review” name=”Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 G3 – Review” author=”Dave” pubdate=”2014-03-11″ user_review=”4″ min_review=”0″ max_review=”5″]
