Hardware Bistro

Product: 4GB ToughDrive Camo
Manufacturer: ATP
Supplied by: ATP
Price: 35USD/RM126
Launch Date: NA

 

USB flash drive is not longer an expensive device with its mature technology nowaday. Today we will take a look at ToughDrive Camo from ATP which is built with synthetic polymer housing and ATP SIP technology. ATP ToughDrive Camo is an extremely rugged and high performance USB flash drive that can be used in all kind of conditions; waterproof, shock proof and dust proof.

 

Company Profile

Established in 1991, ATP has over 17 years of experience in the design, manufacture, and support of high performance, highest quality DRAM modules and NAND flash storage products. ATP focuses in mission critical applications such as industrial/automation, telecom, medical, and enterprise computing where high levels of technical support/expertise, consistency of performance, and manufacturing quality are required. A certified Eco/Green partner of tier one OEMs, all ATP products are fully RoHS and China RoHS compliant.

The ATP brand continues to grow through both consumer and industrial OEM sales channels. With multiple offices in the United States, Asia, and Europe, ATP offers worldwide support in both engineering and sales. ATP adheres to the strict ISO9001 QA standards for quality and compatibility. All ATP memory products are RoHs, CE, and FCC approved.

 

Features

• Tough & Highly Durable: Tough Synthetic Polymer Housing for shock absorption and water resistance
• High data transfer rate: Up to 30 MB/s! Speed up file transfers and multimedia streaming
• Compatibility: No driver needed for Windows 2000 / ME / XP, Mac. OS 8.6 or above , Linux Kernel 2.4.0 or above
• SIP Technology: Manufactured with ATP's SIP technology, allowing for waterproof, shock proof and dust proof
• All ATP USB drives are enhanced for use with Windows® ReadyBoost

 

Specifications

 

Package & Contents

 

Same with other USB flash drives, ATP ToughDrive Camo comes with a pretty standard packaging box and it can be seen through without open up the packaging. The packaging box is sealed which is good to ensure all the contents are original. Army theme was choosen by ATP which should be used to represent the durability of ToughDrive Camo.

 

Besides the USB flash drive itself, ATP ToughDrive Camo also comes with a key chain. All ATP ToughDrive Camo comes with 2 years warranty which is a bit lesser than other brand's USB flash drive but based on ATP, ToughDrive Camo will have around 10 years retention.

 

ATP ToughDrive

SIP stands for System-In-Packaging which is ATP's technology where the all the exposed components and points of failures will be encapsulated inside a very strong container. With SIP technology, ATP ToughDrive Camo is able to be used in all kind of conditions and makes it waterproof, shock proof and more durable compare with other USB flash drives.

 

ATP has two version for ToughDrive; standard ToughDrive and ToughDrive Camo. Basically both of the ToughDrives are totally identical except the USB flash drive housing design. ATP ToughDrive Camo looks nicer with army theme and the retail price of it will be slightly higher. ATP offers from 1GB to 8GB capacities for ToughDrive Camo.

 

ATP ToughDrive Camo is made by tough Synthetic Polymer housing which is the most harder USB flash drive housing that we have ever seen before. The dimension of ATP ToughDrive Camo is around 59 x 19 x 9 mm (L x W x D) which is standard for 4GB or 8GB USB flash drive. There are much slimmer and smaller USB flash drives in the market but don't forget that ATP ToughDrive Camo is a much durable USB flash drive if compare with those fragile USB flash drives. A blue LED indicator is located in the middle of the ATP ToughDrive.

 

ATP ToughDrive Camo comes with a cap for protecting the USB connector of the flash drive and it is fitted very well. The cap is not chained with the flash drive housing so it can be lost easily. If the cap is missing then ATP ToughDrive Camo will not as durable as it is because the cap is used to protect the USB connector. However we found a way to avoid the cap missing but using the key chain to keep the cap.

 

At the back of the ATP ToughDrive Camo, there is a triangle chain which is used for hanging the key chain. The incoming key chain with ATP ToughDrive Camo is a very nice multipurpose key chain and we prefer such keychain rather than a boring lanyard.

 

Installation, Testing & Performance

No driver or software is required for ATP ToughDrive Camo which is standard for a USB flash drive; plug and play. The blue LED indicator looks very nice and it is used to indicate the USB flash drive activity. 

 

A software; USB Flash Disk Utility is included to enhance the security of this USB flash drive. There are three tabs/sections for this software; Login/Logout, Password, and Partition. At default, the whole useable partition is set to public so if user would like to create a private partition then he/she needs to set and format the required partition. The default password will be "0000" for a newly created partition.

 

After that user need to login whenever he/she requires accessing that private partition, and password can be changed at second tab of the USB Flash Disk Utility. This software is quite simple and easy to understand; furthermore this software can be worked on other USB flash drive as well which is good if you have any additional USB flash drive that requires such security enhancement.

 

Test Bed

Notebook : Dell Inspiron E1720
Processor : Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo T7500
Memory : Kingston 4GB HyperX 666MHz DDR2
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 : HDTech, CrystalDiskMark
Ambient Temperature : 27 Degree Celsius

 

In order to find out the performance of ATP ToughDrive Camo, we have tested it with HDTach and Crystal Disk Mark. The average read is 27.3MB/s which is quite near with its specification; 30MB/s. However for the write speed, it is a bit slower than other USB flash drives which is only around 7MB/s. During the testing of this flash drive, we found that ATP ToughDrive Camo is running hotter than other USB flash drives; at the USB connector area. Maybe this is due to the SIP technology where all the exposed components and points of failures are encapsulated inside a container. Anyway we didn't encounter any instability issue during our testing.

 

Besides the benchmarking testing for ATP ToughDrive Camo, we added few tests to find out its durability; drop test, waterproof, frozen test and etc. After all these physical tests, it is still working as usual without showing any lagging or poorer performance. Overall we are quite impressed with the quality and durable of ATP ToughDrive Camo.

 

Conclusion

If you are looking for a durable USB flash drive that at least last you couple of years then ATP ToughDrive Camo is one of your great choices with its extreme durable design. ATP ToughDrive Camo can withstand most of the damages that can't be matched by other USB flash drives such as waterproof, shockproof and etc. The selling price of a 4GB ATP ToughDrive Camo is just around 35USD which is reasonable for such great and durable USB flash drive. ATP also offers 8GB ATP ToughDrive Camo for those require higher capacity.

 

Pros:

* Durable USB flash drive
* Waterproof, shockproof
* SIP technology
* Synthetic Polymer Housing
* Comes with secure software
* Acceptable & reasonable price

Cons:

* Cap can be lost easily
* 

 

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

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