We’ve been waiting for USB 3.0 keys to arrive for some time, offering the promise of vastly improved transfer speeds, but having now seen our first example, we have to say that our reactions are mixed. The Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 16GB is definitely faster than competing USB 2.0 keys, making it the fastest USB drive storage available. However, this particular ‘ultimate’ key comes with some drawbacks that may make you think twice before shelling out. In addition to needing a USB 3.0-capable motherboard or add-in card to work at full speed, it’s also quite chunky and needs two USB ports for power if running in USB 2.0 mode, requiring that you carry the included Y-shaped adapter cable, which makes use with some laptops problematic. Transfer speeds aren’t anywhere near Kingston’s claimed 80MB/s read and 60MB/s write speeds, either. When transferring a 1GB folder of mixed small files, we found average speeds to be closer to 20MB/s both ways. To be fair, that’s still around 1.5 times faster than the Patriot Xporter Rage 64GB (the fastest USB 2.0 drive we’ve tested) and things do improve a lot with larger files. Transferring a single 700MB file, we saw read/write speeds of 44MB/s and 40MB/s, respectively, compared to 28MB/s and 24MB/s on the Patriot Xporter. Given the relatively low capacity of the DataTraveler Ultimate, 16GB may not be enough for some users, especially given its high cost. If you do need the fastest USB key storage available, though, this is currently the only choice.
