Kingston DataTraveler Kyson 128GB USB 3.2 Gen 1 Flash Drive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------CrystalDiskMark 6.0.0 x64 (C) 2007-2017 hiyohiyo-----------------------------------------------------------------------* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytesSequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 242.879 MB/sSequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 33.286 MB/sRandom Read 4KiB (Q= 8,T= 8) : 18.643 MB/s [ 4551.5 IOPS]Random Write 4KiB (Q= 8,T= 8) : 14.814 MB/s [ 3616.7 IOPS]Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 17.120 MB/s [ 4179.7 IOPS]Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 15.006 MB/s [ 3663.6 IOPS]Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 12.711 MB/s [ 3103.3 IOPS]Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 11.614 MB/s [ 2835.4 IOPS]Test : 50 MiB [] (x1) [Interval=5 sec]Date ... More-----------------------------------------------------------------------CrystalDiskMark 6.0.0 x64 (C) 2007-2017 hiyohiyo-----------------------------------------------------------------------* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytesSequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 242.879 MB/sSequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 33.286 MB/sRandom Read 4KiB (Q= 8,T= 8) : 18.643 MB/s [ 4551.5 IOPS]Random Write 4KiB (Q= 8,T= 8) : 14.814 MB/s [ 3616.7 IOPS]Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 17.120 MB/s [ 4179.7 IOPS]Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 15.006 MB/s [ 3663.6 IOPS]Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 12.711 MB/s [ 3103.3 IOPS]Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 11.614 MB/s [ 2835.4 IOPS]Test : 50 MiB [] (x1) [Interval=5 sec]Date : 2021/11/20 11:34:34OS : Windows 10 Professional [10.0 Build 19043] (x64)

I just wanted a "cheap and cheerful" flash drive to act as a Speed Boost drive on my old 2014 laptop that I'm trying to limp along for a bit longer. I knew I wanted at least USB 3.0 performance, and 128GB or better. After hunting about for a couple of hours, I elected to purchase this unit from Kingston for the following reasons:1) I've always had good results from Kingston2) Good warranty3) Slim form factor (the USB ports on my laptop are a bit close together)4) Good technical read rate (cheaper ones were considerably slower)5) The right GB size for the price I wanted to pay6) A reasonable price for an acceptable mix of all the above factorsSince I'm using this drive as a Speed Boost drive, I can't really speak to "how good it is" as it just does it's ... MoreI just wanted a "cheap and cheerful" flash drive to act as a Speed Boost drive on my old 2014 laptop that I'm trying to limp along for a bit longer. I knew I wanted at least USB 3.0 performance, and 128GB or better. After hunting about for a couple of hours, I elected to purchase this unit from Kingston for the following reasons:1) I've always had good results from Kingston2) Good warranty3) Slim form factor (the USB ports on my laptop are a bit close together)4) Good technical read rate (cheaper ones were considerably slower)5) The right GB size for the price I wanted to pay6) A reasonable price for an acceptable mix of all the above factorsSince I'm using this drive as a Speed Boost drive, I can't really speak to "how good it is" as it just does it's thing. I can say that performance on my laptop is improved noticeably - less hard drive bottlenecking, apps open and close faster and more smoothly. In short, it's doing it's job, doing it well, it's not in the way (physically), and I'm happy to have paid a fair price for something that does what I want it to do. Would I like it to have been cheaper? Sure. Of course. But if you're looking for an "all rounder" 128GB drive, that isn't sluggish and won't break the bank, and is small form factor, AND has a good warranty backed up by a solid industry name, this drive is the one for you. Make sure your device has at least first gen USB 3.0 though so you can make use of its pretty good read speed.

Fast

Excellent fast USB Flash Stick . In general, double speed from the previous generation flash drives. Faster Sequential Read Speed : 217 MB/s, write 45 MB/s. It is faster than the previous silver metal-keyring-style- USB 3 flash drive I had from Kingston (it was 90 MB/s seq. speed and 43 MB seq.write). And Faster RANDOM Read Speed : 8 MB/s, write 0.96 MB/s. It is faster than the previous silver metal-keyring-style- USB 3 flash drive I had from Kingston (it was 4 MB/s RANDOM read speed and 0.57 MB/s RANDOM write speed)

Good but not as good as it used to be

I bought these as archive USB discs for my family digital photo album. I on purpose bought this model because I have an older version of this disc and it has lasted a very long time and is solid. This new version does is not as solid as the old version. Where the metal jacket attaches will not be as durable; it is more buttoned on rather than seamless as previously. This new model is more likely to come undone over time and therefore will not last as long.

Its a USB stick

Its functions but the connector edge is quite sharp and the tolerance is not very well made which makes it a very very tight fit depending on the USB-A socket. I was having a hard time plugging it in to several different devices (motherboard, USB hubs, my laptop etc).Small form factor is the only good thing about this unit but if you dent the connector side at all, be ready to bend it open so you can actually use it again. Save yourself some money and just get the 3.1 Microcenter branded stick or if brand is important, get the Samsung ones.

Slooowww writes; case fits too tightly in USB-A port

Others have noted the same two flaws I put in my headline; they are correct: these fit way too snugly into a USB type-A port, and the writes are seriously sloooowww. By comparison, I have some 5-year-old Lexar 32GB thumb drives (USB 3.0 standard) whose write times average about 39 MB/second when writing a 5.5 GB video; these Kingston drives averaged about 12-18 MB/s when writing the same big video file. (Note: I of course had to reformat both the Kingston drive and the old Lexar drive with the exFAT filing system to accommodate that large video file. The default filing system written on these Kingstons is FAT32, unfortunately, and FAT32 cannot accommodate files larger than 4 GB.) These are NOT the kind of drive I would ever buy for day-to-day usage.

Stellar Read, Abysmal Write

Don't get me wrong, this is a good value, but as an everyday use drive I wouldn't recommend it. I got a couple of these drives for System Recovery and for that it works well enough. Top read speed of 209 Mb/s, and top write speed gyrates between 26 Mb/s to 44 Mb/s.Also, the drive is smaller than I expected, much smaller. In fact it's hard to put in the USB port. Very snug fit.

Very Flimsy Metal Shell

I use this as a backup drive in a Sound Devices MixPre 6 II. I have older drives from Kingston, the all-metal DataTraveler SE9 series, and those are great - 32GB sticks with a flat profile, and 64GB sticks with a curved profile that makes it easier to grab and plug and unplug. They can easily be put onto keychains which is useful if you rotate through backups. By comparison, this stick is very flimsy and the plastic end feels wobbly right out of the box. It required quite a bit of force to put into the slot, and also to remove. I'm surprised how much worse it is than previous models. It does the job so far, but I won't be buying any more of this type of USB stick.

WARNING - bad quality control, too tight

I had to return two of these for a refund. I gave them a 2nd star because they do store data and the speed is just as advertised, BUT they were slightly too wide (0.25 mm over specification for USB-A). They were so tight I could barely plug them in and felt like I'd break my USB ports if I kept using them. Some USB ports are maybe a little oversized and slightly loose. People with ports like that probably won't know the difference and will think these drives are fine. But if you have USB ports that are exactly sized to spec these are almost unusable and the poor quality control on the dimensions isn't a good sign in general.

Write speed is 30 MB/s vs advertised 200 MB/s (oops, read speed)

I have to accept the blame for not doing my homework, but I wanted to get a "fast" drive to install Linux onto. After tryinng for over 10 hours I gave up and then did benchmarks and YES, you can read large (5 GB) files at over 200 MB/sec, but only write them at 30 MB/sec.The advertised write speed is shown as 60 MB/sec in the online SPECs, but is specified nowhere on the packaging.I ended up using a Samsung "U3" microSD card to hold Linux, and it works great. My guess is that a Kingston U3 card would work as well.