HP v115w 16 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive P-FD16GHP115-EF

Comment: HP logo is on it though, it's manufactured by PNY.
I gave 4GB version to my sister for her birthday present, and she loved it.
I ordered this 16GB version last week and I got it today.
Actual memory size is 15.0GB.
It was super tiny, cute, and tough enough carry every day on my key chain.
The only thing is the speed.
My PNY 8GB full-size version shows 12mb/s to write, but this one showed only 2~3mb/s.
Maybe it was mistakenly calculated, or something.

Cons - too slow
Pros - everything except the speed

Comment: Ill make this this simple. Its a flash drive. Not much you can say other than a few details that I love about it.
The flash drive is small. Tiny. It is smaller then the bottom half of a key (long ways)
I'm an upcoming college freshman and bought it to replace an older flash drive (SanDisk Cruzer Micro 4 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive SDCZ6-4096-A11) that is still working great but I wanted something that would slide in my pocket with my ID on a lanyard to keep on me. This works perfect.
Plugging it into my computer it comes up as 15gb even. it is read instantly and no installation is necessary like with my old micro. (Huge + for me)
My only complaint so far is, while it feels tough when closed up, it feels somewhat weak when you are pushing it into the computer/usb port.

Overall this is exactly what I wanted even though I was shocked at the size when I opened the box.
Very happy with the purchase and would easily recommend it to anyone on the go or anyone who wants a small flash drive to carry around without it being too bulky.
Feel free to comment with questions.

Comment: Plug it in and start storing, its that simple. No cap to loose but the whole thing is so small you might loose it so I would recommend attaching the lanyard. The only thing even remotely negative I could say about it is that because of the new design, it might take half a minute to figure out how to plug it in because it doesn't have a plug with a full metal casing. The connectors are exposed on this design whereas on the traditional USB plug, the connectors are hidden by the full casing. I actually like the new look, just saying for some people it may be confusing. Otherwise, excellent product and a great buy!

Comment: UPDATE: So I have had this thing for less than 36 hours and it is dead. Neither my laptop nor my PC can write to this thing or read from it. When I click on the Properties tab it shows that this usb device has a capacity of 0 bytes yet is full. Not sure what this means but I am returning it to the store today for a full refund. I should note, all I did was copy about 3.6gb of music on this and used it in my car stereo three times and now it is dead. I also safely removed the device after writing the mp3s to it and it worked just fine in my car but today it's just dead. HP really does make junk (well PNY but HP let them put their name on it).


My original review when it worked:

The main problem with the v115w is that there is no good way to attach it to your key chain, and this limits its portability, the only thing it had going for it. The little metal rings that come with it are flimsy and probably wouldn't last a week before the usb stick falls right off your key chain. I just removed the very flimsy metal ring and used the slightly sturdier ring and the metal clasp but I am still not confident this thing is securely attached to my keys. I spent about an hour trying to rig something better but the hole on the usb drive is so small that only very flimsy metal rings will fit in it. Poor design choice on HP or PNY's part (this is a PNY product with HPs name on it). If PNY would have made a larger hole so that we could use sturdier metal rings that would have solved this entire issue. But in the end, we are left with "portable" flash drives that will probably cause us more worry than it's worth.

I cannot comment on the write speed of this unit as my old laptop has usb 1.0 so of course it took about 2 hours to transfer only 3.6 gb of mp3s and wma files. This usb stick does work in the head unit in my car, but with nearly 4 gigs of music on this thing it takes my stereo about two minutes to begin playing, good for road trips, not so great for a quick drive to the store.

Also, confirmed that this drive will fail the Xbox 360's data loss test, which is not a great sign of things to come, but from what I can tell pretty much every usb stick fails this test, except for the severely over priced sandisk stick with the Xbox logo on it.

My only other comment (gripe) is that the contacts on the v115w are not durable. I plugged it into my Xbox and removed it about one minute later and the gold plated contacts were already scratched up. Not alot of scratches but two very deep ones. Then, I plugged it into my laptop and copied 3.6gbs of music to it, removed it, now all of the contacts were completely scratched. I have other usb devices at home and work that I have been using for years and the contacts on these are nearly perfect or with only a few light scratches. This is rather annoying since the main reason I wanted a swivel usb drive is so that the contacts would be protected when dangling from my key chain, but just plugging and unplugging this device is enough to scratch up the contacts. If I wanted scratched contacts I would have gotten a IamAkey, at least those can be securely attached to your keys!

Anyways, it is super cute and tiny and my old laptop was able to see the device instantly but unfortunately,the two main selling points for me 1) portable and 2)durable are not really something this device has to offer.

Comment: ...and that's the truth.
Technology is a beautiful thing, but this item takes it too far.
It's so small that you lose sight of the efficiency you bought it for,
worrying about where's the safest place to put it, or if it's worthy
of your more important information for fear of losing it, or misplacing it.
it's more a mental hassle than a physical challenge with this little drive.

The capacity is good and it works just fine...nice tight fit in a USB drive.

But again, the color is the same as most computers, and it's easy walk away
from (when maybe you don't mean to) just because it's so small.
The little chain and latch that come with it seem strong enough, but I just
can't picture having an important spreadsheet presentation dangle from my
keychain.

I guess it would be OK for someone who didn't take their storage all that seriously
and just wanted something cool, to show around town.
But who has time for that ?