We’ve all seen HDD disk capacities hitting once unthinkable numbers, but it’s no secret that the demand for high-capacity USB sticks has been growing as well. Since these devices are extremely portable, and serve as a keychain at the same time, most users can’t even remember the time when they didn’t have one nearby for “just such an emergency”. We know that USB stick capacity goes anywhere from 1GB to more than 100GB, but not everything is in capacity as speed is another important selling point.

Kingston recently announced the new DataTraveler200 series, which offers fast high-capacity sticks and comes in three flavors – 32GB, 64GB and 128GB. We had a chance to test the DataTraveler200 64GB so let’s see what this product offers.



The packaging is as simple as it gets – the front of the box emphasizes USB 2.0 support and the capacity of 64GB. The rear of the box shows the supported operating systems as well as systems which support Password Traveler, which is a password protection app.

The device supports Mac OS X v10.3.x+, Linux v2.6.x+, Windows Vista, Windows 2000 (sp4) and Windows XP, but note that the Password Traveler can only be used on Windows based devices.



Unfortunately, Kingston didn't bundle a USB extension cable, which would've been a nice touch, nor a promo lanyard, so you’ll have to purchase them separately. Of course, it’s not a big downside, but they would’ve been nice gifts, considering this is a 64GB unit.

Specs:

- Capacity - 64GB

- Speed - Data transfer rate up to 20MB/sec. read and 10MB/sec. write

- Dimensions - 70.39mm x 12.52mm x 22.78mm 

- Operating temperatures - 0°C to 60°C

- Storage temperatures - 20°C to 85°C

- Warranty - 5 years

- Safeguard - Windows based program Password Traveler for password protection of your data


Our today’s DataTraveler 200 comes in black-yellow color scheme and has a somewhat futuristic design. The cap doesn’t come of entirely but rather is integrated into the design, so no worries about losing it.



The stick uses a simple design – to uncover the connector simply pull on the cap. It also looks appealing.



Unfortunately the cap doesn’t cover the front of the connector so it can get dirty at times, but that shouldn't be that big of a deal.

Data Traveler is made of plastic but the sliding cap is coated in a rubbery substance, which really feels nice.






Password Traveler

As we mentioned before, DataTraveler 200 comes with a rather simple password protection program.



PasswordTraveler enables a virtual partition called Privacy Zone, to which you’ll be granted access only if you know the password. In order to shrink or in any way manipulate a once created partition, you’ll have to format the drive.

We’ve noticed that the Privacy Zone can easily be formatted without having a password, and it makes the entire app somewhat semi-functional and we hope Kingston will offer an update for this.




Performance

We’ve performed a couple of tests and compared our DataTraveler 200 64GB with two Corsair’s USB sticks.

HDTune rates the read speeds as pretty high. Unfortunately, most flash-based devices have great read speeds but sometimes suffer from slow writes.

As you can see, DataTraveler scores much higher read speeds than Kingston’s maximum specified speeds of 20MB/s.

In the following test we checked write speeds and Sisoft Sandra 2009 results caught us by surprise.

DataTraveler once again surpasses maximum specified speed of 10MB/s which is quite nice.

Our real world testing included copying files onto USB sticks. We used one 700MB .avi file as well as a batch of files comprising of 174 directories with 1785 files totaling at 786MB.

As you can see, DataTraveler emerges a winner and we were particularly pleased with copying of more small files, which it handled like a champ.

Conclusion

DataTraveler 200 64GB will set you back a bit over €125, and while that money can buy you a 500GB 2,5 inch external disk you won’t be fitting it in your pocket anytime soon. The second issue with an external hard drive is that once you drop it, you are risking total data loss which certainly won't happen with a USB drive.

Kingston made an excellent USB stick, both in terms of design and performance, as our testing shows it leaves many competitors in the dust. We were particularly pleased by the fact that it ran faster than the specifications said it will, and Kingston assured us that the other two DataTraveler 200 series sticks will perform the same.

DataTraveler 200 is an ideal USB for those who crave a lot of storage in a small device, and you’ll easily use this stick for large libraries of various data. You can protect your personal data using the PasswordTraveler app, but this app would greatly benefit from an update as it doesn’t ask for a password when you want to format and/or change the capacity of the Private Zone.

Kingston DataTraveler 200 64GB is a USB stick definitely worth having, and despite its saucy price of €125, the speed and the capacity surely make it a quality product. If you want a lot of capacity that comes with great performance at any price this is the device for you.