PNY Polaroid 16 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive P-FDU16G-EF/POL

I've had this for about a year and it still works perfectly fine, but I do make sure to put it in a safe area. That said, this drive is not as durable as others and shouldn't be placed into a bag or pocket where heavy things could crush it. I usually just place it in my coat pocket or my backpack's "media safe pocket" (which isn't really anything special, but is place on the top where nothing can damage it). So, if you treat your stuff roughly this may not be the drive for you.

Now, onto the speed of this drive. Using SpeedOut 0.5 I clocked the device reading at a rate of 26+MB/s and writing at 5+MB/s. The read speed is fast and you can't really expect much more from a USB 2.0 flash drive. Meanwhile, the read speed is sub-par, but you can still transfer a 1GB file in about 5 minutes. In overall this drive performs well, especially for its size.

The drive worked great for a few weeks, not fast, but reliable. However, the thing completely blew up while it was in my pocket. I don't know what happened, but when I reached in to take it out, in was in pieces. I don't remember putting any pressure on it, certainly not enough to make it completely fall apart. In any case, the durability of this drive is not great, and I would advise against it.

The spring-loaded swivel mechanism on my drive broke after not very many usages. I had to get my pocket knife out to dig the usable end out of the case. I would not recommend this drive. While it is compact and convenient at first, it breaks easily, and when it does it is almost unusable. I've had other USB drives with mechanisms that have broken but never so badly that I've had to get a tool to be able to use it again and never this quickly after purchase.