12 best usb flash drives

Modern technologies are developing by leaps and bounds. Processors are becoming more powerful, screens are clearer, cameras are better - all this allows you to create much more productive programs and better films and games than before. But such an “arms race” has led to the need to store huge amounts of information. And if a 50 GB movie does not take away much space on a hard disk, then transferring it to another device is already more difficult. Fortunately, manufacturers do not forget about the good old flash drive.

There are a lot of them: MicroSD, SD, MemoryStick and a lot of everything else. We'll talk about the most familiar format for most people - USB Flash drive - or simply speaking about USB flash drives. Speaking in books, it is a device for storing, transferring and exchanging data (movies, music, documents, etc.). Also flash drives are used for backup and loading of operating systems, but these directions are less popular among the population.

In terms of their structure, most USB flash drives are fairly standard: a USB interface for communicating with a receiving device (computer, TV, car’s multimedia system, etc.), a controller, an oscillator, and directly a NAND flash memory chip. So it turns out that flash drives are in fact little different from each other, and therefore the choice of a particular model depends mainly on the speed of reading and writing, reliability and appearance. These parameters and pay attention to our traditional rating. Go!

Best USB 2.0 Flash Drives

To begin with, let's take a little older flash-drive technology with USB 2.0 interface. This standard was born back in 2000, and therefore it is difficult for it to meet modern standards of performance. The maximum possible speed is 480 Mbps, which is 60 Mb / s. It seems not so bad, but these are only theoretical figures. In fact, USB 2.0 flash drives are capable of producing no more than 35 “meters” per second when reading, and even lower recordings. Of course, there are still restrictions on the maximum power of the current, but in the context of the article about flash drives, this is of little interest to us. The only thing that currently boasts models from this category is the price. If you compare flash drives of similar volume from one manufacturer, it turns out that a USB flash drive with USB 2.0 is about 2 times cheaper than a more modern competitor.

It turns out that it is worth recommending models from this rating to people who either do not care much about the time spent waiting for the download, or to those who work with small amounts of data, where speed is not so important. In any case, we advise you to look at our rating of the best USB flash drives with interface 2.0

Note! For the "purity of the experiment" in the ranking, we compare the model with the most popular volume - 16 GB. Versions with higher or lower capacity may vary in cost and speed.

3 Kingston DataTraveler SE9

Unfortunately, the flash drive of one of the leading drives in the market of the company does not differ in special quality.Yes, the design is interesting. The dimensions are compact. But you forget about all this when you try to download a large file to a USB flash drive. The speed is amazing, but not in a very good way. The price is, of course, pleasant, but winning less than 50 rubles the buyer significantly loses in speed and additional functions.

Advantages:

• Metal case
• Best price

Disadvantages:

• Slow read (22.5 MB / s) and write (15.6 MB / s)

2 Transcend JetFlash 600

Transcend is producing quite interesting drives, but it’s quite difficult to call it a JetFlash 600. Externally, it does not stand out in any way - an ordinary piece of black plastic without a hint of designer sophistication. Here you can even scold the manufacturer in the absence of any fastening of the lid, because of which it is very easy to lose. Yes, and on the flash drive no eyes, so that attach it to the keys will not work. The only thing that can really smooth out these shortcomings is the highest speed in the ranking.

Advantages:

• Best speed Reading - up to 32 MB / s. Record - up to 16 Mb / s
• There is a password protection
• Data compression function
• There are versions from 4 to 128 GB - the largest selection

Disadvantages:

• High cost - one and a half times higher than that of competitors

1 Sandisk cruzer fit

SanDisk flash drive has almost all the advantages that you can wish for. The main advantage over competitors is very compact size. Yes, this is easier to lose than overall models, but then they buy it mainly, judging by the reviews, for use in the car. And here the small size is just a salvation, because in many car stereos the USB-connector is located in the front and a large USB flash drive can be simply broken by careless hand movement. Cruzer Fit does not protrude by more than 5 mm, and therefore it will be difficult to carry it by hand. Also, this model can be recommended to owners of laptops with a small amount of internal memory. I put this baby in the port and forgot - there was more memory, but almost nothing sticks out.

Advantages:

• Good speed performance. Reading - 28.3 MB / s, writing - 13.96 MB / s
• Most compact dimensions
• It is possible to protect the flash drive with a password
• There is a backup function

Best USB flash drives with 3.0 interface

USB 3.0 standard, like 2.0, can hardly be called very modern, because the final specifications were formed in 2008. Nevertheless, this interface remains popular to this day, since provides a theoretical speed of up to 625 MB / s. Already impressive, yes? In fact, these flash drives give about 250 "meters" for reading, which is also a very good result. Our rating will help to choose the best model in this category.

Attention! As in the previous category, we compare models with the same volume. In this case, it is 64 GB. Other versions may vary in price and speed indicators.

3 Transcend JetFlash 790

Strange as it may sound, the manufacturer of the fastest flash drive in the previous category does not perform well with USB 3.0.The design is interesting, and you will not lose the cover. Speed ​​indicators like nothing, too, but it is very unstable. Judging by the reviews, they differ in one and a half times! What is the reason - it is not clear. Otherwise, this is a fairly standard flash drive for a small price.

Advantages:

• Data transfer indicator
• Large selection - models from 8 to 128 GB

Disadvantages:

• Unstable speed performance. An average of 101.75 MB / s for reading and 44.8 MB / s for writing

2 Corsair Flash Voyager GS (CMFVYGS3)

Corsair products are well known among computer enthusiasts and, not surprisingly, are not well known to ordinary users. And the only thing that prevents the brand from spreading everywhere is the high price. Very high. Yes, the speed of work here is one of the best in the world. Yes, build quality and reliability at the highest level. But, unfortunately, an ordinary buyer is unlikely to want to pay 3-4 times higher for the sake of an increase in productivity by several tens of percent.

Advantages:

• The highest speed - in real tests, the read speed was 236 MB / s, the write - 170 MB / s
• Metal case

Disadvantages:

• High price
• Large size

1 Kingston DataTraveler R3.0 G2

Finally, we got to one of the most interesting flash drives. Its main feature is water resistance. Of course, a light rain will almost certainly survive any model, but this Kingston flash drive can be easily immersed in water without fear of losing data. This can be useful not only for extremes, but also for ordinary people who are concerned about the safety of important files. In addition, the speed of the flash drive does not suffer from a protected rubber case. On the contrary, the official figures are a bit ... underestimated, which can not fail to please.

Advantages:

• Waterproof case
• The real speed is higher than the officially announced - read 141.5 Mb / s, write 44.7 Mb / s
• Maximum memory up to 256 GB

Disadvantages:

• Under high load, the case heats up significantly

The best flash drive high speed work

The speed of writing and reading data is one of the two most important characteristics of any flash drive. It determines the overall speed of working with files, as well as the nominal price requested by the manufacturer (and distributors) for purchasing USB. Not so long ago, fast flash drives had a low working resource, but at the moment this problem has been successfully resolved.

3 Corsair Flash Voyager GS (CMFVYGS3)

Corsair Flash Voyager GS is the quintessence of quality and impressive technical features that can meet the needs of any unpretentious user. It comes in three different types of memory, ranging from 64 to 256 GB, which is a very good indicator. In accordance with this, the characteristic of the recording speed changes from model to model. In the most “junior” GS-ke it is only 70 Mb / s, while the “senior” has 105 Mb / s. The rate of reading files in both cases is the same - about 260 MB / s.

The USB 3.0 interface drive is encased in an unattractive but robust metal case, the degree of tightness of which reliably protects the internal circuit from dust and dirt. This performance still has its drawback: the hampered heat sink contributes to the accumulation of heat in the flash drive scheme. In this regard, long-term work, for example, on modeling or video editing, straight from the drive can cause overheating and concomitant failure.

2 HyperX Savage

HyperX Savage is a powerful USB-drive interface 3.1, designed to store huge amounts of information. In its line there are as many as four models, the amount of which varies from 64 to 512 GB. Actually, this feature was the most impressive for thousands of users, which is clearly demonstrated by their positive reviews.

The HyperX Savage read / write speed also brought a lot of joy.As the capacity increases, the speed of data transfer changes from 180 to 250 MB / s, which has quite a bit of logic. While reading speed remains the same in all versions, and does not fall below the threshold of 350 MB / s. Received a portion of praise and visual component of the drive, facing which is made in the traditional style of Hyper X. Actually, the combination of all the above-described magnificence fully justifies the average price tag, slightly increased over the last year.

1 SanDisk Extreme PRO USB 3.1

High-quality USB flash drive interface 3.1 from SanDisk, designed to ensure the fastest possible access to the data storage. I found a great response among domestic users, who were pleased in many ways with technical conditions and overall build quality. SanDisk Extreme PRO USB 3.1 comes in two memory options: 128 and 256 GB, respectively. Supports password protection of data, so that it can store information of a strictly personal nature. The data transfer / read speed on this model is also in optimum, amounting to 380 and 420 Mb / s. And, as particularly demanding consumers note, a blitz check of key parameters showed their complete coincidence with the stated ones.

In favor of SanDisk Extreme PRO USB 3.1 says the presence of a metal case with a mechanism for retracting the connector. The cost, fully justified by such excellent parameters, is expectedly high, but the available margin of safety will be enough for several years to come.

Best USB flash drives high capacity

Along with the read / write speed, the amount of memory is a fundamental characteristic of any USB flash drive. It directly affects the amount of information that can be placed on the drive, and also affects the speed of access according to the “more-worse” principle. Such problems are often found on inexpensive flash drives of 16 to 128 GB, the nominal speed of which is not able to provide users with quick access to the stored data.

3 Patriot Memory Supersonic Magnum 2 512GB

USB 3.1 flash drive suitable for falling into several categories of this rating at once. In our opinion, it has the most optimal memory parameter, equal to 512 GB, which is enough for comfort both for normal use and for purely working needs. It has excellent rates of data transmission and reading, which are equal to 300 and 400 Mb / s, respectively. In order to verify the veracity of the stated characteristics, especially sensitive users arranged a real functional test on the flash drive ... and did not reveal any critical deviations.

However, consumers from the Russian audience at Patriot Memory Supersonic Magnum 2 512GB are catastrophically low. The fact is that a flash drive is a very specific model, the resources of which are often not needed by a simple PC user. From here and low popularity, and quite high price, and the extremely rare appearance on store shelves.

2 PNY PRO Elite USB 3.0 512GB

Despite its Chinese origin, the PNY PRO Elite USB 3.0 512GB drive has one very attractive aspect of service. 60 months warranty - for significant technology (both in terms of size and functions performed), this indicator is very worthy, eloquently speaking about the manufacturer’s confidence in its technology. In the case of a flash drive, it looks astronomical at all - perhaps none of the leading manufacturers of flash drives have such a reserve of “patience”.

Specifications PNY PRO Elite USB 3.0 512GB also look very impressive. Coupled with a good amount of internal memory, the consumer gets a high processing speed, which is recorded at 250 MB / s at peak, and 400 MB / s at reading. Yes, the popularity of flash drives in Russia so far leaves much to be desired. However, soon the company expects to seriously address the issue.

1 Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate GT 1TB

Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate GT is the most capacious USB flash drive on the Russian market at the moment. The more interesting is the fact that it is the youngest model in the series - soon the American company is preparing to provide Russia with a copy with a memory capacity of 2 TB. However, so far this has not happened, a terabyte version of the drive is becoming increasingly popular among professional bloggers and people whose work is in one way or another connected with a huge flow of information. Its performance recording speed is at the level of elite balanced flash drives, and is 200 MB / s. The reading speed of 300 MB / s is also positively highlighted against the general background of the characteristics.

The only truly weak point of Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate GT 1TB is the level of cost. It is clear that the development technology is absolutely new, and finished products should pay back all costs ... but not everyone is ready to give the cost of a good gaming laptop for a flash drive.

Popular vote - who is the best manufacturer of USB flash drives
We vote!

Kingston

Sandisk

Transcend

Corsair

Adata

Silicon power

Verbatim

Patriot

PNY

Total voted: 1437

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