Transcend 4GB JetFlash 500 USB 2.0 Flash Drive (TS4GJF500)

Physically, this Transcend 16 GB JetFlash 500 Retractable USB 2.0 Flash Drive looks almost identical to the SanDisk Cruzer Micro 16GB drive. The retractable USB plug on the Transcend drive also works EXACTLY the same way as the Sandisk (I'm surprised that somebody hasn't got sued yet). But that's where the similarity ends, because the Transcend JetFlash is a whole lot faster!A bit of background information: I own both the Sandisk Cruzer Micro 4GB and 16GB versions. What I noticed is that the 16GB version is much slower than the 4GB version, especially when witting data. I even contacted Sandisk customer support, trying to find out what is the speed of Cruzer Micro. The response I got was quite useless:"There is no guaranteed speed for SanDisk Cruzer Micro flash drives, as the speed for these flash drives have not been tested. If you need a flash drive with fast data transfer speed, we recommend SanDisk Extreme Cruzer Contour for this."Prior to ordering this JetFlash drive, I visited the Transcend USA web site to search for information. Surprise, surprise! The data transfer speed of JetFlash 500 (under the 'V' series) is actually specified as:"Read 15 MByte/s, Write 7 MByte/s (16GB)"Once I received this Transcend JetFlash drive, I put it through several benchmark programs, to compare against the Sandisk Cruzer Micro:- For typical photo files, write speed of the Transcend varies from 6.8MB/s (for 1MB file) to 11.3MB/s (for 5MB file). In contrast, the Sandisk only ranges from 2.0MB/s to 3.5MB/s. That means the Transcend is about 3x faster than the Sandisk! (See my Customer Images for details)- For very large video files, the Transcend writes at about 7.8MB/s, while the Sandisk only reaches 5.1MB/s. The difference in smaller but still significant.In terms of storage space: The Transcend drive reports 15.1GB of total capacity, while the Sandisk drive reports 14.9GB. Note that it is normal for a '16GB' flash drive to show only 14.9GB of storage, because 14.9GB for computer people (where 1GB = 2 to the power 30) actually translates to about 16,000,000,000 bytes. So that can be called '16GB' according to marketing people (where 1GB = one billion bytes).In summary, the Transcend JetFalsh 16GB drive looks and works just like the Sandisk Cruzer Micro, but its write speed is +50% to +200% faster than the latter. As of this writing, both drives are available at similar prices, so this makes the Transcend a much better value.[Update on Nov 3, 2010]:- The price of this Transcend USB drive dropped further during the past two months. So now it is an even better value.- Several reviewers have reported bad experiences using this USB drive on the Xbox 360. Right now your only safe bet is to get the Xbox 360 - 16 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive by SanDisk, which costs twice as much.- If you don't intend to use the software supplied by Transcend, simply rename the file "Autorun.inf" (located at the root directory of this drive) to something else, such as "Autorun._inf". Then you can use it as a simple USB storage device.[Update on April 7, 2012]:I have my Transcend USB drive connected to my desktop PC as secondary storage most of the time, only occassionally remove it to transfer files. So far it worked perfectly fine for 1.5 years. It should be noted that I have used at least half a dozen USB drives and at least 20 flash memory cards in the past decade, and none of them ever failed on me. So it could be that I am just more careful with semiconductor devices (I always discharge myself of any possible electrostatic charge before handling memory cards, for example)

[...]SpecificationsClick to EnlargeThis USB drive weighs a slight 0.4 ounces and stretches to about 2.74 inches. The drive components are encased in a shiny black case that has a removable cap. It is a USB 3.0 drive and is compatible with legacy USB technologies, including 2.0 and 1.1. It has a small hole on one end that can be used to attach the drive to a lanyard.The Transcend JetFlash is available in 4, 8, 16 and 32 GB memory capacities. This drive is certified with the Conformité Européenne (CE), Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection (BSMI). Though these certifications might not mean much to you, it does prove that Transcend has taken the effort to comply with accepted U.S. and world market standards.FeaturesClick to EnlargeThere are two features included with this USB drive that can help you secure and organize your files. The two features are data management tools and security software. This drive comes with the JetFlash software pack. This package includes tools to help you back up, restore and synchronize your files. It can also compress and password protect your files. The software can make your JetFlash a key to your computer, and it can back up your emails and save your favorite website links.This flash drive also comes with free access to the Transcend Elite data management tools. This software can be downloaded free from their website and includes backup and restoration tools, data encryption for securing files, backup management tools and a tool for syncing bookmarks. Encrypted files are password protected in a secure folder. In addition, others that use your USB drive cannot see the file list inside the vault that are secured with 256-bit AES encryption. The backup tools are particularly useful if you are using one of the larger-capacity drives as your backup storage device.The Transcend JetFlash 700 is a USB 3.0 flash drive. In their labs, the 32GB version tests as fast as 70 Mbps for read speed and 30 Mbps for write speeds. This means you can transfer a full-length movie from the drive to your connected device in a matter of seconds. It is also fast enough to stream video so you can watch it directly from the device rather than having to download it.Help & SupportClick to EnlargeThis flash drive comes with a limited lifetime warranty. The warranty terms require that you register the product within 30 days of purchase, but it's a comprehensive warranty and they will even try to help you recover lost data should the product fail. Online they post a volume of warranty information, and you can contact them by email if you have further questions. They do not post a technical support telephone number and they do not provide chat support via their website. However, we did find the information they post on their website useful. For example, they provide a comprehensive user manual for the Transcend Elite data management tools.SummaryThe Transcend JetFlash 700 balances classic, simplistic beauty with the power of a high-performance race engine. It can easily manage your business files such as PDFs or PowerPoint presentations as well as demanding media files such as video and high-resolution images. There are only two minor oversights that have kept this drive out of the top spot. One is that it does not have an integrated cap, so it is easy to lose. Then Transcend does not provide technical support by telephone. But these two omissions do not affect the performance of this device - it is fast and sleek.