Kingston 16GB USB 2.0 Data Traveler Thumbdrive Review
It seems that thumb drives, like the Kingston 16GB USB 2.0 Data Traveler Thumbdrive, are becoming even more affordable and available with even larger capacities. As I had asked in an earlier review, should you buy now or hold out for even more capacity? My answer so far has been keep buying good deals and keep upgrading.
Review Continued Below…
Let’s look at some of the specs for the Kingston 16GB USB 2.0 Data Traveler Thumbdrive. The whopping 16GB of storage space means that you can carry around 3 DVD’s worth of data in your pocket with room to spare. It will work with all of the major operating systems, Windows, including Vista, Mac and Linux. All in all, it’s just your good, solid, basic USB 2.0 thumb drive.
Like it’s 8GB cousin I reviewed earlier the Kingston 16GB Data Traveler is lightweight and small. This is good and bad, good that it’s so small you won’t notice carrying it but it’s easy to lose or send through the washer. It also has a retractable USB connector, which is also good and bad. The good is that there are no more caps to loose. The bad is that the USB port, although retracted, is exposed to dirt and pocket lint. I’ve also found that in use that the retractable connector doesn’t lock well when extended so you have to make sure you have a good connection.
Another minor downside is the lack of support for Vista ReadyBoost although, in practice, I’ve found this to be minor. Also, as I mentioned in my 8GB Data Traveler review, that you can improve performance by using Windows NTFS formatting instead of the cross-platform FAT32 formatting to improve performance on Windows systems while losing compatibility with other platforms.
A nice plus of the Kingston 16GB USB 2.0 Data Traveler Thumbdrive is that they keep the bonus software to a minimum. With our hard drives today being increasingly clogged up with junkware, this is a nice change.
If you’re like me you’ve been constantly upgrading as thumb drive memory size increases and prices decrease. Like me, you may have every size of thumb drive from 128MB up to 8GB. Is it time for you to upgrade to 16GB or should you wait for 32GB or more? As for me, I’m continuing the progression with a Kingston 16GB USB 2.0 Data Traveler Thumbdrive.
Tags: Bonus Software, Caps, Cousin, Cross Platform, Data Traveler, Dirt, Downside, Good Deals, Hard Drives, Kingston, Major Operating Systems, Pocket Lint, Storage Space, Thumb Drive, Thumb Drives, Usb 2 0, Usb Connector, Usb Port, Vista Readyboost, Windows Systems