Liquid Metal is both sturdy and looks cool
Written: Aug 17 '06 (Updated Aug 17 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fast transfers, strong case, looks cool
Cons: Some won't like the retractable connector. U3 will get in the way for some.
The Bottom Line: If you need to buy a new Flash Drive, this is the best choice available as of 8/06. Best specs, and everything you could want.
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| grimjack2's Full Review: SanDisk Cruzer® Titanium (2 GB) USB 2.0 Flash... |
This is more than just the most durable, fastest, and coolest looking Flash Drive money can buy right now. It also has U3, which makes it the most technologically advanced. It looks much nicer, and is about 25% shorter than comparable PNY flash drives.
I used floppy disks long after I, and everyone else, had hard disks. I still was using floppy disks into the mid 90’s, and when I built a new machine in 1999, I wouldn’t have thought of not having one even though blank CD’s had finally gotten down to around $1 each. There were many attempts at replacing the floppy, with the Zip drives being the strongest of the actual competitors. However, the end of the floppy drive was only truly sealed when the first USB flash drives started showing up. At first they were around 8 MB and cost about $50. They seem to have grown in size at an amazing rate. Wasn't a 64 MB flash drive considered huge less than two years ago? Now you can get a 512 MB flash drive for all of $30, and many are given away free when you buy a new computer, or advanced printer.
The first thing you’ll notice when looking at this flash drive, or comparing it to others is how nice it looks. It has a rugged metal case who’s look is called “liquid metal” on the packaging. It looks shiny, and the etched logo is attractive. This case is rated at being able to withstand 2000 lbs of crush force. I didn't test this (or really want to), so I'm just going to report that it does feel very 'strong'. I’m not sure if I intend to ever have my Cruzer run over by a small car, but I do tend to swing it around and hit things occasionally, so if it can survive this, then I’m rather happy. In truth the real weakness of these is the potential for it to get lost, not crushed, and as they get smaller, the risk for both is increased.
Sticking with the externals for a moment, I also want to compliment it for its good design of the lanyard attachment. Instead of just having a string go through a loop in the metal like cheaper drives, there is an actual locking latch type of device similar to what I've seen on dog collars that keeps the lanyard attached. It also comes with a belt clip that is really hard to get on, and anyway I prefer the neck strap (although my coworkers would disagree as I tend to spin it around my hand really fast, scaring them, instead of wearing it around my neck.)
Now for what I consider to be the most controversial aspect of it. Because they are going for the ‘short’ look, instead of a cap, it has a retractable USB connector. There is no cap to lose, which some will consider a great feature (has anyone not lost their cap at some point?). This does make it smaller, but many find it annoying when trying to force the USB connector into a hard to reach USB port.
Me? I’m torn between liking it smaller and the annoyance of needing to secure it in the extended position with my thumb when inserting it. Yet unlike some cheaper memory flash drives with retractable heads, this one does lock strongly when extended, and you have to push down on it to get it to retract. In some ways it is the best of both worlds, but when you are blindly flailing around trying to find that USB port deep behind your machine that you just know is inexplicably ‘dodging’ the flash drive, or when you aren’t sure which way the USB connector is facing and try to force it in upside-down and the connector retracts causing you start all over again, you’ll curse the USB gods, and those who didn’t make a law about which ways these guys should face.
As a side note, am I the only person who is batting far less than 50% at guessing which way any USB connector plugs into the port? Whether it be flash drive, mouse, hub, external drive, or etc., I guess the wrong direction about 60%-65% of the time. I’m certain there is a very valuable psychological study to be done by some aspiring grad student some day!
Oh yes, and before getting into the internals, I should mention that there is a very large blue LED light that is both cool and looks nice. It is larger than I would think would be necessary, but since it isn’t bright enough to be distracting and does look nice, I’m glad it’s there. I do wonder if a more helpful read/write type of indicator light wouldn’t have been better.
Now, there is something else about this flash drive that needs to be mentioned. It is the first U3 device I’ve gotten to use. You can read about U3 in detail on the http:www.u3.com web site, or from its wikipedia listing, but in short, think of it as having a small ROM drive on the same device, which is basically a large RAM drive. When you insert a U3 capable flash drive, like this SanDisk Cruzer Titanium, two drives appear in your ‘my computer’. There is the Two Gig partition that you expect to see, and then there is also a much smaller drive that appears as a CD-Rom device. (This is apparently purposefully designed this way.) The reason for this is so that the applications on the U3 partition autoplay, just like a CD-Rom. I imagine a small program could run that guarantees encryption of any data getting put onto the drive. So far, the programs I see with U3 are lots of little shareware programs in a nice launcher window. This particular flash drive came with Skype, CruzerSync (data synchronization software for files and outlook), Avast Antivirus, and Signup Shields passwords (one master password, and the password manager remembers the rest). These are either shareware or the limited versions of the software and their reviews can all be read separately. And besides (before you jump to that ‘helpful’ button), by the time anyone reads this and rushes out to buy a Cruzer Titanium of their own, I’m certain the programs will have changed, since from what I can tell, they are rotating on and off different programs just about monthly.
Now the U3 has some nice potential but it is annoying when I’m inserting the flash drive to copy a file between machines really fast. Not as slow, of course, as an actual CD-Rom drive, but when I just want to copy something, and the launcher application loads up, it can be frustrating. Also, seeing a new CD-Rom drive appear probably freaks out some people who don’t know why this is happening.
This device was bought by my work for me in a bulk with some other similar devices to compare and test, so I’m not sure of the price, but I see it available for $99 everywhere, and even $20 less after rebates on a few sites.
While rated at 15 mb/s, this doesn’t mean much to anyone, so I did some real world tests.
I copied a 455 MB file in approximately 44 seconds. I then copied a 379 MB folder containing 89 files of various sizes in approximately 48 seconds. Not quite 15 mb/s for seconds on either test, and my computer is only average.
And yes, like all USB devices, it works on USB 1.1 only computers, although at the expected drastically reduced speed.
Looks good. Fastest copies possible. Very convenient. Simple as that.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
grimjack2
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Location: San Rafael, CA, Marin County
Reviews written: 181
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Film is my favorite art form. I live a life of constant amelioration.
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