INTRODUCTION

   Much like everything else in the PC market storage media have evolved a lot compared to even just 10 years ago both in terms of performance and capacity. Just imagine that 10 years ago the highest capacity and performance USB 2.0 flash drive one could find in the market (and i had) was just 4GB and could reach speeds up to 33MB/s read and 10MB/s write whereas now we have many 128/256GB models in the lab capable of reaching speeds up to 450MB/s for both read and write and as many of you are aware there are even 1TB models available in the market like the Predator by Kingston and the T1 by Samsung. Of course not everyone can afford the high-end 512/1TB drives and honestly i don't think they really have to since even 128GB is not something the majority of consumers will ever fill with data they need to carry around with them. Still prices for 128GB USB 3.0 flash drives have reached an all-time low and thus today we'll be taking a look at the latest model by Silicon Power, the Blaze B50.

   Silicon Power Computer & Communications Inc., founded in 2003 by a group of enthusiastic specialists of flash data storage industry. Well dedicated in brand image and product quality, SP has been recognized and well accepted by millions of end-users in more than 100 countries, becomes the world’s leading manufacturer of flash memory cards, USB flash drives, card readers, DRAM modules, solid state disks, and portable hard drives in less than a decade. Headquartered in Taipei, we continuously established various branches throughout the world including Netherlands, Japan, Russia, Mainland China and other emerging market. With superior quality and innovative design, our products stood out in several competitions and awarded Taiwan Excellence and COMPUTEX Design & Innovation Award in 2009 and 2010. Winning trust of global consumers SP holds a record of successive double-digit revenue growth for last seven years. For SP, the product we introduced is not only a digital storage device but also a real promise to create and preserve your most valuable memory in every moment.

   The Blaze B50 line of USB 3.0 compatible flash drives is aimed towards the majority of consumers in the market not only because of its advertised performance numbers (up to 200MB/s read and 80MB/s write) and elegant design but also because of the currently available capacities of 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 and 256GB. To that end under the hood Silicon Power has placed the cost-effective Phison PS2251-03 dual channel USB 3.0-to-Flash micro-controller along with MLC memory modules (probably manufactured by Intel). With this configuration it's clear that Silicon Power never wanted to take on the really high end USB 3.0 flash drives currently available in the market but since time and again their reported performance numbers have been off (we've recorded higher ones) we're quite interested to see how the Blaze B50 performs.