CONCLUSION

    Even though in terms of pure read and write performance hardware encrypted drives fall behind regular models (this includes software encryption) we’ve reached a point where I don’t think many people would have a problem using a drive that surpasses 150-200MB/s in reads and writes. The sole downside drives like the D500S have (as opposed to keypad and Bluetooth models) is that they are not OS & platform independent and so if you’d like to use it with your media player, projector or even your gaming console chances are you’ll not be able to do that. That aside however the IronKey D500S excels in everything else from build quality and available protections to features and performance so I don’t think this will be a game breaker for many people. As for protections I once again used my small software collection, and I was unable to access files inside the drive. Again, I am not a hacker/cracker so I am not really qualified for this part so once again if anyone out there would want me to use a specific software (or anything else) while testing secure drives feel free to reach out.

    Hardware encrypted secure USB flash drives are not for everyone and with a current price set at USD291.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and at 436.06Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) for the 256GB variant of the IronKey D500S by Kingston this is quite clear (unfortunately once again things are not that great on this side of the Atlantic, in terms of pricing). Still the IronKey D500S is a secure drive that delivers on most things that really matter and for that it gets the Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality (IP62 Certified Zinc Alloy Enclosure)
- Security Measures (AES-XTS 256-bit Hardware Encryption/ FIPS 140-3 Level 3)
- Very Good Performance
- Standard, Managed Versions Available
- Secure Customization Service
- Available Capacities (8/16/32/64/128/256/512GB)
- 5 Year Limited Warranty

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- Not OS & Platform Independent (Password Input)