Intelligent Desgn

This review of the Verbatim U3 Smart Drive family is copied from my original review posted for the 1 GB version. You should read the comments because the Lead reviewer makes some very good points. Except for capacities (and data transfer rates), the drives in this family are identical.

Verbatim offers a very broad range of USB flash drives, from basic storage to high speed read/write drives to “high security” corporate flash drives. These offerings cover the gamut from CDRW (and DVDRW) replacements to basic computers on a stick. The former makes flash drives very desirable in the business world as a means of transferring data – and also very dangerous as a means of transferring data, intentionally or otherwise. The latter offers the potential of being able to have a set of essential preconfigured applications on your keychain, allowing you to sit down at any computer in the world, as long as it has a USB port, and open up a familiar desktop in seconds.

The idea of using the flash drive as a sort of Swiss Army knife of computers is not novel – any number of magazines have listed a number of small, inexpensive programs that can allow a user to create a desktop on a screen away from home. The company U3 has taken things a step further with a mini operating scheme that prompts you for passwords, provides a display menu of slender utility programs, and has an easy eject software button.

So almost every flash drive in the world can do these things. What differentiates the wheat from the chaff varies by user, but for me, I really like to see the following features in a flash drive:

1. A good, strong means of attachment to a key ring. If the hook or loop breaks, or if the eye through which the drive is attached looks like it came from a sewing kit needle, the drive is essentially worthless as a portable device. You wouldn’t carry loose keys around, would you, or loose money? Probably not, so you should give lots of consideration to how securely you can attach this information carrier to your key ring, or purse, or notebook bag, or whatever.
2. A simple means of detaching and re-attaching the drive to said holder. A durable attachment is one thing, but being unable to remove the drive from its home on a moment’s notice is inconvenient at best and sometimes makes the drive unusable. Plus, it’s not like you want your boss to see your three liquor store case buyer's club key ring cards when you’re swapping drafts of the business plan. Ideally, you should be able to remove or attach the drive in three seconds or less.
3. Encryption. Nearly every USB drive has password protection (Mac users, most USB drives work fine in your machines, but the password routines are Windows only), nothing robust enough to stop the truly determined, but enough to keep casual voyeurs at bay, or at least protect your data with more than a fig leaf should your drive get lost or stolen.
4. A slim profile. Nothing is worse than a fat USB drive that is thicker or wider than the space between the USB ports. Either another USB connection has to come out or the drive can’t be used. A USB drive can’t be too thin.
5. Good cap management. The cap should fit snugly over the USB prong, and ideally there should be a place to store the cap when the drive is plugged in. Caps, like socks, seem to make a run for it when I’m not looking, and one sock and an uncapped USB drive eventually become equally useless.
6. Durability. I’m not saying the thing should survive a road grader, although SanDisk offers titanium encased drives, but the integrity of the construction should result in a long lasting drive, and the design should allow the finish to keep on looking good. This last piece is an especially tall order when the drive spends much of its life in one’s pocket, jousting with the rest of the key ring.

I’ve had my Verbatim Smart Drive for about two months now, and here’s my report card on the checklist of features.

Speed – C+: this Verbatim is near the low end as contemporary flash drives go, with read and write speeds in the neighborhood of 5MB/sec. Other drives can read and write up to 30 times faster, but they are also more expensive. If you use your flash drive to transfer documents, photo, and music files, this drive is plenty fast enough. You’ll never miss a faster drive, especially if you use any USB 1.1 ports, which limit data rates to 12 MB/sec.

U3 Program – C+. This is definitely a mixed bag. Like the Palm OS for PDAs, U3 offers free and for sale downloads. Most U3 offerings are available elsewhere, and most are frankly not that valuable. The Verbatim comes with eight, if you include the animated tour. The Roboform Lite password manager limits you to ten passwords; the upgrade is $30 for unlimited entries. What U3 DOES do is provide a shell in which you can manage these programs. It also has password protection, and a little menu that can be launched from a tray icon on your desktop. In case you were wondering, the drive shows up in My Computer as a CD (U3 System, only about 4 MB on the flash drive) and a second drive called My U3. It also has an eject button in the menu, which is really nice. It’s actually a nifty little package for managing the drive; now if anyone could come up with something useful to put in U3. . . .

Attachment – A+. The back of the drive has a beefy crossbar with a wide opening. Even the widest key ring will fit easily, allowing the drive to swing freely on the key ring. This is easily the least obtrusive strong attachment method I’ve seen, which makes it the best. Period.

Quick removal – A+. Remember the movie, A Christmas Story, in which Ralphie Parker daydreams of his teacher giving him an A+++ on his theme? Well, the Verbatim’s system could be that good. A swivel connects the key ring and what is effectively a micro-carabiner. A small button releases the latch, and off comes the drive. Push the crossbar through the spring loaded latch, and presto – you’re back on the key ring. So small, so strong, so ingenious, I don’t know why no one else has come up with this system. Probably because it co$t$ too much. Believe me, if you wear your drive on your key chain, this feature alone should place the Verbatim drives at the top of your shopping list. Nothing else is even close.

Encryption – B- Simple, effective, nothing fancy, and it doesn’t get in your way. Verbatim claims their corporate drives are the Binford Turbo of security. I can neither confirm nor deny that, but because the Smart Drive is less likely to leave your side unintentionally because of its attachment systems (at least for key ring people like me), I rate the security as a notch above average.

Profile – B+ while not as narrow as some I’ve seen, the Smart Drive is thinner and narrower than most, so it should not cause any problems among closely spaced USB ports.

Cap Management – A – It attaches so securely it almost pops like a cork when removed. Even better, the back of the drive is shaped to accept the cap snugly when the drive is in use. Others have done one or the other, and some SanDisk models have sliding prongs that eliminate caps altogether. But Verbatim has put it all together with this drive.

Durability – B - Everything about this drive says quality. The materials are of good quality and sturdy and few compromises were made in the design. This drive is not going to fall apart, even under hard use. The only shortcoming is the inevitable appearance of scratches and abrasion of the coating that gives an initial rubbery feel and satin aluminum appearance to the drive. Had I been the designer I would have used a thicker layer of inexpensive EPDM or other thermoplastic rubber to create an initially less attractive but ultimately more durable finish.

So if my biggest whine is that it scratches too easily, and my second biggest is that the not-too-useful bundled software comes inside a nice drive management shell, that must mean that this drive is the equivalent of the reliable everyday car – it works well, and quietly so, is clever but neither terribly fancy nor perfect, and represents a great value. You may pay 20% more for this drive, but I think you’ll get twice the life of a competitor’s drive – at a minimum.