Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 Review Storage   Page 1

Reviewer: Chris Ledenican Article Publish Date: 10/30/2012

 

 

 

 

Introduction

 

 

 

Kingston has a diverse line of USB flash drives that are based on both the USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 interface. While the former can save you money by costing less per-gigabyte, these drives are restricted by the USB 2.0 interface, meaning they will have lackluster read and write performance, which will make you wait for you data. Drives such as the DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 we are examining today, however, are an entirely different beast, as they are able to utilize high transfer speeds of the USB 3.0 interface.

The Kingston DataTraveler is able includes a high-speed 8-channel controller that provides USB 3.0 read and write speeds of up to 225MB/sec and 135MB/sec respectively. This makes this drive one of the fastest on the market, but Kingston hasn’t doesn’t stop at the transfer speeds alone. They have also included a shock and water-proof rubberized exterior and the drive is available in capacities that range from 64GB to 256GB.

Since USB 3.0 has effectively replaced USB 2.0 as the new standard it is does have a higher premium than drives that use the older interface. However, over the last year USB 3.0 drives have been creeping down in price and as of this review the 64GB Kingston DataTraveler has a street price of around $95. Of course this is still over a $1 per-gigabyte, but the current pricing trend is going down.