Kingston Data Traveler Elite 2 GB
The product name "Data Traveler Elite" sounds pretty impressive, and the actual item comes across as a serious product, free of frills and fluff. Small ripples on the side of its case make the device easy to grip between one's fingers. The protective cap for the USB connector sits solidly on the device, and is unlikely to slip off accidentally. Included with the device is a pouch that is designed to attach to an eyelet mounted on the unit.
The impression of seriousness is fostered further by a 5-year warranty, and underscored by the availability of optional hardware-based data encryption (128 bit DES). This is backed up by nominal data transfer rates of nearly 21 MB/sec for reading and 13 MB/sec for writing. Our measurements fall somewhat short of what the vendor reports for the device, but they're still noteworthy numbers anyway. It's also hard to beat the average access time we measured of about 0.5 ms.
