Transcend 16 GB JetFlash 500 Retractable USB 2.0 Flash Drive - TS16GJF500 (Black)

Comment: Physically, this Transcend 16 GB JetFlash 500 Retractable USB 2.0 Flash Drive looks almost identical to the SanDisk Cruzer Micro 16GB drive. The retractable USB plug on the Transcend drive also works EXACTLY the same way as the Sandisk (I'm surprised that somebody hasn't got sued yet). But that's where the similarity ends, because he Transcend JetFlash is a whole lot faster!

A bit of background information: I own both the Sandisk Cruzer Micro 4GB and 16GB versions. What I noticed is that the 16GB version is much slower than the 4GB version, especially when witting data. I even contacted Sandisk customer support, trying to find out what is the speed of Cruzer Micro. The response I got was quite useless:
"There is no guaranteed speed for SanDisk Cruzer Micro flash drives, as the speed for these flash drives have not been tested. If you need a flash drive with fast data transfer speed, we recommend SanDisk Extreme Cruzer Contour for this."

Prior to ordering this JetFlash drive, I visited the Transcend USA web site to search for information. Surprise, surprise! The data transfer speed of JetFlash 500 (under the 'V' series) is actually specified as:
"Read 15 MByte/s, Write 7 MByte/s (16GB)"

Once I received this Transcend JetFlash drive, I put it through several benchmark programs, to compare against the Sandisk Cruzer Micro:

- For typical photo files, write speed of the Transcend varies from 6.8MB/s (for 1MB file) to 11.3MB/s (for 5MB file). In contrast, the Sandisk only ranges from 2.0MB/s to 3.5MB/s. That means the Transcend is about 3x faster than the Sandisk! (See my Customer Images for details)

- For very large video files, the Transcend writes at about 7.8MB/s, while the Sandisk only reaches 5.1MB/s. The difference in smaller but still significant.

In terms of storage space: The Transcend drive reports 15.1GB of total capacity, while the Sandisk drive reports 14.9GB. Note that it is normal for a '16GB' flash drive to show only 14.9GB of storage, because 14.9GB for computer people actually translates to slightly over 16,000,000,000 bytes. So that can be called '16GB' according to marketing people.


In summary, the Transcend JetFalsh 16GB drive looks and works just like the Sandisk Cruzer Micro, but its write speed is +50% to +200% faster than the latter. As of this writing, both drives are available at similar prices, so this makes the Transcend a much better value.

Comment: I bought this on the Goldbox specials recently. I love it! I had a Cruzer micro 8GB(Correction, I still have)... which is a decent drive... nothing special, but then... this one really isn't special either... but I can say when I ran a benchmark test that this drive is much faster with really small files... 1MB or less and Really big files... 1GB or more... In between there about the same... I was hoping that the drive would have a green light but Blue is fine too... :-) I'm happy with it.

Comment: I love this flash drive! It has the increased space I need without sacrificing speed of transfer. Normally I don't like the sliding usb part but the way this one is designed it works like a charm and eliminates the need for those annoying caps!

Comment: Ok first: i bought this as a gold box deal @ $23 which was a decent price.
The usb itself it pretty much straight forward. Got this usb to store my movies and music so i can connect it so my xbox slim and view it on my 40' hdtv.

Pros:
- Retractable slider, prevents tip from damage
- sleek and clean design
- has a loop where you can connect to a lynard/keychain
- durable hard casing

Cons:
- doesnt exactly have 16gb of space

Other than that i think this usb drive was a steal. It works perfectly. I plan on buying 3 more of these once the price drops down again. I recommend this usb drive to everyone.

Comment: I purchased this as a Gold Box deal, so I won't include price as a factor in my review- in all fairness to later reviews. I purchased this for the sole purpose of transporting music and picture files.

I received this yesterday and plugged it into a USB 1.1 port on my case- Not a 2.0! I installed the Transcend Jetflash elite software. I haven't utilized anything in the software, but it includes features for:

1. Outlook Expres and Windows email
2. easy access to your favorites in Intenet Explorer and Firefox browsers
3. secret-zip setup- password feature
4. Data backup and Data sync
5. PC Lock
6. My Jetflash- shows what's on the drive

After installing their software, there was still 15.1 GB available, which I believe is what's the norm for a 16GB drive.

Performance is usually the most critical issue (besides price) with all drives. Needless to say, that is not a big issue with me, since I have it plugged into a 1.1 port! lol. But I did decide to do a couple of performance checks for the tech geeks! (Yes I fall into that category, too!) These specs are read from an external Maxtor One Touch 1TB hard drive and written to the Transcend 16GB jump drive- into a 1.1 port and out a 1.1 port! Sorry, I didn't feel like pulling the full tower case out to reach the 2.0 ports!

A 77.2 mb music folder took 13 seconds (nearly 6mb/sec and a 337 mb music folder took 52 seconds (6.5mb/sec). I imagine it would perform quite better using 2.0 ports.

The only con I can think of would be the somewhat cheap construction (plastic) of this drive. It rattles slightly when you shake it, so rough users might have issues with this. Hopefully, some of this may help you with your decision!