Not fastest of the bunch, but of good value

The manufacturer Kingston Technology currently sells three grades of USB memory. This DataTraveler is the most affordable and low performance USB memory out of them. There are higher-performance DataTraveler II and DataTraveler Elite from Kingston Technology.

I bought my 512MB from OfficeMAX promotion at $30 after rebate. The rebate check comes very quickly(after 4 weeks.)

This 512MB supports USB2 interface but the speed is in the range of USB1. At just 6MB/s read and 1.5MB/s write, this USB memory is on the slowest side of the spectrum. That's ok because I paid less for this bargain memory. But when you buy a USB memory, please compare apple to apple for price.

Also high priced models have a security software, which prevent unauthorized access to the USB memory. It will be good to have such a feature for a portable USB memory is likely to be misplaced and end up in someone else's hand.

The higher-performance models speed are 24MB/s read and 14MB/s write, which is 4~9 times faster than my economy grade model.

It takes about 5 minutes to fill my 512MB with USB2 interface, because writing is slower. If you are going to use a USB memory to download a big data from a client's computer, be sure to buy high speed memory to minimized stealing client's valuable minutes. According to the manufacturer's data sheet, the highest performance memory will cut the time to just over a minute.

The mechanical quality is good. The plastic connector cap is tight after a month's repeated use. I use it for my business trip and plug it in a lot of times a day.

Supplied neck strap is not practical. I put the USB memory into my pocket after I removed the neck strap receiver from the USB memory key ring.

There are smaller USB memories on the market, but at a higher price. The size of mine is not bulky in my pocket, anyway.

My co-worker has a same Kingston USB memory. He had have his 64MB for six months and it is in good condition still.