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