Transcend Ultra Speed JetFlash 8GB

Transcend’s 8GB (yes 8GB!) flash based memory stick belongs to the new breed of high capacity memory sticks. Since it’s a 8GB device, you would be using it to transfer bigger files and large amount of data and that’s where the speed of the drive becomes crucial, hence we will compare it to a similar sized hard drive based storage product, the Western Digital Passport Pocket Drive 6GB. Let’s check it out.

Package contents

JetFlash, USB Extension Cable, Neck Strap & Driver CD

Design

Its just a little larger than normal sized memory sticks and weighs almost the same. The body is made of plastic and feels sturdy with the top portion being semi transparent, since it houses the indicator light. The cap comfortably comes off and has an effective retention mechanism to keep it in place when you put it back—unlike Buffalo’s RUF2-S 512MB memory stick. With the Buffalo—which also happens to be one of the fastest flash drives—the cap would come off too easily and most often while removing it from the pocket, the drive would come out without the cap. Try not to loosen the cap—not that it would render the drive useless but its an effective way to protect the USB header.

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Features

You just plug the device, its recognized as a removable drive instantly, transfer the data and your done! But with increasing competition in this space, manufacturers have started bundling some interesting nifty softwares. The 8GB JetFlash comes bundled with mFormat software utility. The PC-Lock utility can be set to lock your computer when the drive is unplugged and then unlocks when you plug the drive back. Basically it runs a ‘computer locked’ screensaver not letting you use the computer. Not that useful though, as Windows offers a similar feature where you can go back to the login page by just hitting the "Window + L" keys on your keyboard and restrict access by using a password protected login.

The second utility is 'Boot-Up' wherein you can configure it to serve as an MS-DOS Boot Disk. Upon completion of the procedure, you can use it to boot up your computer, letting you run MS-DOS programs.

The third utility is 'Partition' wherein you can create a secured partition only accessible by a password.

Performance

Real World Tests

Average Read Speeds

JetFlash 8GB: 12.1 MB/s

WD 6GB Pocket Drive: 6 MB/s

Average Write Speeds

JetFlash 8GB: 9.5 MB/s

WD 6GB Pocket Drive: 5.2 MB/s

Synthetic Tests (Everest Ultimate Edition 2006)

Average Read Speeds

JetFlash 8GB: 12.9 MB/s

WD 6GB Pocket Drive: 6.4 MB/s

Average Write Speeds

JetFlash 8GB: 9.6 MB/s

WD 6GB Pocket Drive: 5.4 MB/s

Conclusion

The drive is much faster than Western Digital’s 6GB (hard drive based) pocket drive but then again it costs Rs. 9500 bucks as compared to 6500 for the 6GB pocket drive. The JetFlash, being a Flash based drive, is more reliable than hard drive based portable drives, since it has no moving parts. So if you want a pocket-able, reliable and reasonably fast storage device with a decent capacity then the Transcend JetFlash 8GB is a good choice.