Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Review
Kingston’s DTU30/64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive
Last week Kingston Technology announced that the company has begun shipping its first USB 3.0 Flash drive. The Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 Flash drive takes advantage of the newer and faster USB 3.0 specification that has up to ten times the data transfer rates of the current USB 2.0 specification. This means that the DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 Flash drive is quick and it doesn’t disappoint with a read speed of up to 80MB/s and a write speed of 60MB/s. We happened to get our hands one of these drives last week and went straight to testing it as we really wanted to see what it had to offer!
| Kingston Part Number | Description | Street Price |
| DTU30/16GB | 16GB USB 3.0 Flash drive | $65 |
| DTU30/32GB | 32GB USB 3.0 Flash drive | $100 |
| DTU30/64GB | 64GB USB 3.0 Flash drive | $200 |
The DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 is available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities under the part number DTU30. For this review we were sent the 64GB DTU30/64GB model, so that is the drive we will be using for testing.
The DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 that we received comes in enclosed in clam shell packaging and needs to be cut from the packaging, which is a bit of a pain. Kingston let us know that they have a wide variety of packaging options available and it is up to their retailer to pick what packaging they want to use. The Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 64GB USB 3.0 Flash drive was built with both speed and capacity in mind as Kingston wanted to make this Flash drive series ideal for data backup or fast transferring of large files including music, photos and videos.
Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 2.0 (DTU30) Features:
- Capacities 16GB, 32GB, 64GB
- Requirements system with USB 3.0 port
- USB 3.0 Data Transfer Speeds up to 80MB/sec. read and 60MB/sec. write
- USB 2.0 Data Transfer Speeds up to 30MB/sec. read and 30MB/sec. write
- Backwards compatible with USB 2.0.
- Dimensions 2.90″ x 0.87″ x 0.63″ (73.70mm x 22.20mm x 16.10mm)
- Operating Temperature 32 to 140F (0 to 60C)
- Storage Temperature -4 to 185F (-20 to 85C)
- Simple just plug into a USB port
- Practical durable casing with a solid lanyard loop
- Guaranteed five-year warranty
The back of the packaging shows the DTU30 Flash drive series is compatible with Windows 7, Vista and XP. It also mentions that the drive has a warranty, which is five years in case you are wondering.
Cutting open the retail packaging we found that Kingston included a USB 2.0 Y cable as some older USB 2.0 ports might not have enough power to initialize the drive. Also included was a key chain ring and the basic instructions were included behind the artwork on the paper slip that was in the box.
The DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 has a blue activity LED light in the end of it that glows blue when not in use and flashes while transferring data. The light remains the same color whether it is on a USB 2.0 port or USB 3.0 port. The picture above gives you a good look at the USB 3.0 header on the DTU30/64GB Flash drive.
The enclosure does have a hole in it for a key chain or lanyard and the cap also snaps onto the end of the drive so you won’t set it someplace and lose it while the drive is in use. Kingston even designed a small gap or slot in the housing so the supplied key ring rope will still work even with the cap in place.
Now that we know the basics of this Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Flash drive we
can move on to
benchmarking!
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