INTRODUCTION

   From all the emails we get and all the comments we read around the web by many people it really seems that portable storage demands not only get to increase in capacity each day that goes by but also in speed since many of you keep asking about which is the fastest and smallest USB 3.0 compatible flash drive in the market currently. Of course the answer to that is not very simple because it's almost impossible for anyone to get his hands on every USB 3.0 flash drive out there by every single manufacturer to compare them against each other in order to see which the smallest and fastest one is. Still many of you know that we always do our best to deliver on your requests and so after digging around we found what just might be the perfect balance between performance and size, the SuperSonic Rage XT USB 3.0 Flash Drive by Patriot Memory.

   Established in 1985, Patriot Memory builds a full range of memory module and flash memory products, offering a perfect blend of quality and value. Patriot products include Extreme Performance (EP), Signature Lines (SL) and Flash Memory solutions (FM). Commitment, focus on innovation in technology, product quality, and customer satisfaction are the key enablers of our future success. Patriot's development and manufacturing facility are located in Fremont, California USA and Taipei, Taiwan. Our manufacturing segment is composed of a highly skilled production staff and multiple production lines optimized for modules, giving Patriot the ability and resources necessary to provide a full line of memory module solutions. We understand the value of designing and responding quickly and intelligently to the rapid changes inherent in the memory module industry. This commitment to R&D enables us to deliver the best quality memory modules powered by the latest innovative technology.

   Unlike the SuperSonic Boost and the normal SuperSonic USB 3.0 flash drives we've tested in the past the brand new SuperSonic Rage XT comes with a partially rugged retractable design housing which actually looks and feels quite nice (although we would like it more had it been a fully rugged housing). However what really makes the SuperSonic Rage XT stand out from the rest of the bunch is not its design but rather its compact size which is roughly half compared to regularly sized USB flash drives. Performance-wise Patriot Memory claims that the SuperSonic Rage XT can achieve read speeds of up to 180MB/s and write speeds of up to 50MB/s two numbers which are actually very good. All that's left is for us to see just how accurate these numbers are and how well the drive compares to all the other USB 3.0 drives we've tested so far.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE SUPERSONIC RAGE XT 32GB

As with pretty much every USB flash drive out there the SuperSonic Rage XT arrived inside a clamshell package with the connectivity, main features and system compatibility placed at the front.

The product features are also written at the rear in 7 different languages right next to its specifications list and above the 5 years warranty statement.

I was expecting to find a small lanyard in the package but unfortunately Patriot Memory ships just the drive. The partially rubber coated SuperSonic Rage XT measures 53mm in length, 21.8mm in width, 11mm in thickness and weighs just 11g.

The company logo is placed at the rear end on both sides.

Now as you can see from the pictures up until now on one side we see just the XT letters while on the other we see the entire SuperSonic Rage logo along with the drive capacity.

Since the drive has a retractable (Capless) design by default the USB plug is hidden.

So as usual to use the drive you need to retract (slide in) the front part of the drive as seen above.

As always we placed the SuperSonic Rage XT next to every other USB flash drive we have here with us to showcase its size (and as you can all see it's quite small).

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   Since flash drives are basically plain storage media devices just like solid state drives and hard disk drives we are using almost the same testing methodology to successfully record the achieved performance numbers. The benchmark suites used are HD Tach RW (Read Speeds / Long Bench 32mb Zone Testing), HD Tune Pro (Read speeds), Sisoftware Sandra Pro (Read / Write speeds), AIDA 64 Engineer Edition (Average Linear Read / Random Read speeds), Crystal Disk Mark x64 (100MB-1000MB Read / Write speeds) and finally ATTO (Max Read / Max Write speeds). Every test is repeated a total of 6 times after which the average performance numbers are recorded into our charts.

   All tests are performed with are main test rig running Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Service Pack 1 complete with every system update up until January 8th 2013. As always for comparison purposes in the charts you will also find many other flash drives which have been tested using the same exact test bench as the one in this review (we really can't keep every flash drive we get forever and also even if we could testing them all again and again would simply not be possible).

TEST RESULTS - AIDA 64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK X64

CONCLUSION

   We've seen quite a few really fast USB 3.0 flash drives to date and we should be seeing even faster ones in the near future (check CES) but the downside all of them have is their size which makes it somewhat hard for people to actually carry them around with ease, at least always compared to smaller models. Well this is where the SuperSonic Rage XT USB 3.0 flash drive by Patriot Memory comes in and as clearly shown in our performance charts although it's just a tad larger than the quite tiny F80 and SE9 USB flash drives it delivers a performance factor of up to 8 times over thanks to USB 3.0. Unfortunately the SuperSonic Rage XT is not an 100% rugged unit and the front end of the USB plug is always exposed so that may not appeal to some people, on the other hand however we did like its retractable design and rubber coated housing.

   USB Flash Drive prices keep falling day by day and so the current price tag of USD39.99 inside the USA (Newegg) and 40Euros inside the EU for the SuperSonic Rage XT 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive by Patriot memory is very tempting especially for people who don't want to sacrifice performance for size and vice versa. Granted you can find faster USB 3.0 flash drives in the market but not only will you need to spend more on them but to our knowledge almost each and every one of them is larger than the SuperSonic Rage XT and size does matter a lot to some people. Bottom line Patriot Memory has designed and manufactured a very good USB 3.0 flash drive. The SuperSonic Rage XT looks great, has a sturdy feeling, is very fast and quite small and so because all of the above it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Quality
- Partially Rugged Rubber Casing
- Very Good Performance (Especially Read Speeds)
- Retractable Design
- Size
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- Write Speeds Could Be Slightly Better