Kingston 2GB DataTraveler 400 Review

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Product: 2GB DataTraveler 400
Manufacturer: Kingston
Supplied by: Kingston
Price: 15USD/RM55
Launch Date: NA

After reviewed on Kingston DataTraveler Mini Slim, today we are going to continue with DataTraveler 400 which is a high quality flash drive from Kingston. Kingston DataTraveler 400 comes with capless design and additional security software to enhance the security feature of the flash drive.

Company Profile

Kingston Technology Company, Inc. is the world's independent memory leader.
Founded in 1987 with a single product offering, Kingston® now offers more than 2,000 memory products that support nearly every device that uses memory, from computers, servers and printers to MP3 players, digital cameras and cell phones. In 2007, the company's sales exceeded $4.5 billion.

With global headquarters in Fountain Valley, California, Kingston employs more than 4,500 people worldwide. Regarded as one of the "Best Companies to Work for in America" by Fortune magazine, Kingston's tenets of respect, loyalty, flexibility and integrity create an exemplary corporate culture. Kingston believes that investing in its people is essential, and each employee is a vital part of Kingston's success.

Features/Benefits:

Safeguarded - includes SecureTraveler2 security software for Windows
Enhanced for Windows ReadyBoost on Vista based systems5.
Multifunctional - preloaded with MigoSync data synchronization software
Flexible - MigoSync Operating Language support in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Russian, Thai, Portuguese and Dutch

Specifications:

Capacities3 - 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, 32GB
Dimensions - 2.58" x 0.71" x 0.41" (65.76mm x 17.98mm x 10.7mm)
Fast - data transfer rates of up to 20MB/sec. read and 10MB/sec. write4
Operating Temperature - 32° to 140° F (0° to 60° C)
Storage Temperature - -4° to 185° F (-20° to 85° C)
Simple - just plug into a USB port
Customizable - Co-logo program available
Guaranteed - five-year warranty

Compatibility Table:

Package & Contents

Kingston DataTraveler 400 comes with standard flash drive packaging with a transparent box. The transparent box is not a sealed type where users can recycle it whenever it is necessary. At the back of the packaging, there are some basic information of this flash drive like compatibility and etc.

Besides the flash drive dongle of the DataTraveler 400, Kingston also includes a strip for users to hang the flash drive dongle at a key chain. The user's manual isn't stated anything special just some specifications of this flash drive.

Kingston DataTraveler 400

Kingston DataTraveler 400 is one of the highest end flash drives from Kingston for their consumer line of business. DataTraveler 400 has few capacities from 1GB up to 32GB but 1GB and 2GB capacities are end of life where the minimum capacity of DataTraveler 400 is 4GB with 24USD while 32GB is around 190USD. Kingston DataTraveler 400 has read speed; 20MB/s and write speed; 10MB. Besides that DataTraveler 400 is also enhanced for Windows ReadyBoost and preloaded with MigoSync software for synchronizes files from local drive to PC.

Kingston DataTraveler 400 is using a capless design which is good as some of the users will always misses out their flash drive dongle cap. Some of the flash drive manufacturers will add a chain to hang the dongle cap on the dongle itself. However for DataTraveler 400, Kingston design in such way where the USB flash drive connector is protected by an additional outer body cap.

Basically the dongle of DataTraveler 400 are having two bodies; inner and outer. The outer body will be the USB connector cap which is made by steel while the inner body is made by some sort of softer material. Both of these bodies will give additional protection for the flash drive dongle especially against dropping. At the end of the inner body, there is a blue LED to show the HDD accessing activity.

Here is the size comparison between Kingston DataTraveler 100, Data Traveler 400 and Mini Slim. Nothing impressive for DataTraveler 400 in term of its dimension since DataTraveler 400 is not targeting slim flash drive market as Kingston already have such product which is DataTraveler Mini Slim.

Installation, Testing & Performance

No specific software is required for Kingston DataTraveler 400 in order to work as users just need to plug and play. As we mentioned before, DataTraveler 400 comes with additional security software which is called SecurityTraveler from Kingston.

No special CD is used to store this software but it is pre-copied by Kingston on the flash drive itself. Users need to beware that don't accidentally delete this software which is not recovered unless he/she is able to get another copy from someone else. By the way, this software can be used for other brand's flash drive as well.

For the first time setup for this SecurityTraveler, it will pop up a screen to ask users to create password and private partition if he/she would like to have such private sector for better security purpose. Once the private partition is created, this sector will not be visible unless it is login with the correct password. To format the private partition, it is required to login as well.

Test Bed
Notebook : Dell Inspiron E1720
Processor : Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo T7500
Memory : 4GB Kington HyperX 667MHz DDR2 Memory
Hard Drive : 120GB 2.5" 5400RPM 8MB Seagate
Graphic Card : Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS
Optical Drive : DVD RW
Operating System : Microsoft Window XP SP2
Benchmark Software: HD Tech 3.0, CrystalDiskMark2.2

Here are the result comparison between Kingston DataTraveler 100, 400 and Mini Slim. Among all these USB flash drives, DataTraveler 400 outshine the rest of DataTraveler USB flash drives;
DataTraveler 100 has the slowest speed which is acceptable since it is just an entry flash drive while DataTraveler Mini Slim is a bit slower than DataTraveler 400 in term of write speed but for the read speed, the DataTraveler 400 is much more faster with around 32.4MB/s.

Conclusion

There is no doubt Kingston DataTraveler 400 is a very good USB flash drive in term of performance and quality; so far it is one of the best USB flash drives that we have tested so far. Besides that it comes with SecurityTraveler software which gives additional security purpose for users to protect their private files and data. 24USD for 4GB Kingston DataTraveler 400 is not so cheap if you compare with other flash drives but bear in mind that those cheap flash drives definitely will not give you such fast respond.

Pros:
* Great read & write speed
* SecureTraveler software
* Capless design
* 5 years warranty

Cons:
* None

Thanks to Kingston for providing this sample for us to review.