Kingston Datatraveler USB3.0 64GB review

The DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 is first memory stick we’ve seen with USB3 support. It’s obvious that USB3 would make the Ultimate 3.0 faster than most flash drives, but we were still impressed by its performance. Large files were written at 46MB/s and read at a rapid 91MB/s. Smaller files were slower, but 22MB/s write and 52MB/s read speeds are still very fast for a flash drive.

Kingston provides a Y-shaped cable so you can connect the drive to two older USB ports, ensuring it gets enough power. Despite this, we didn’t encounter any issues plugging the Ultimate 3.0 directly into older USB ports. For a direct comparison we tested it over USB2 as well, here transfer speeds were at least halved across every test.

USB3 support might seem like overkill for a flash drive, but actually it’s a great match for a device you use on the go – we often find ourselves impatiently standing by a PC while it copies files onto a flash drive. Of course, a lot more PCs will need USB3 before you’ll get the full benefit. You pay a premium for it, but if you have compatible hardware the Ultimate 3.0 is one of the fastest pocket-size storage devices you can buy.