What Experts Says About Kingston Data Traveler I G4 USB3.0 Pen Drive

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The Kingston DataTraveler G4 a relatively cheap 128Gb USB Key, which signals the introduction of large size USB keys as “mainstream”. It’s got rather simple, clean aesthetics with a basic cap which can be misplaced. It operates as expected, although it gives you a little less storage than you’d expect (about 125.7 “weasel” Gb).

Unfortunately, it seems that it leverages a rather basic controller, with large block flash memory, which puts it at a penalty when dealing with small files below 64kB. This is a common trade-off with larger capacity “basic” USB keys. The performance really isn’t anything spectacular, but for bulk large file transfers, it could be very acceptable.

Where you are making many small file back-ups of documents, the performance could be slower than the USB key you’re already using, and is unlikely to matter whether that’s a USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 key given the rates are very far below even USB 1.1 rates (~1Mb/s).

I look forward to the future where SSD-grade performance can be found in small USB keys at a mainstream price, but for now, people chasing performance should probably look elsewhere.

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