INTRODUCTION

   I really don't know why exactly but the price drops in everything related with storage media are still going and I'm really afraid that if this goes on for much longer it could actually hurt the entire industry (although price drops are always good for the end user). Still my job is not to be an industry analyst but to test the latest hardware and since it so happens that most people are focused on these price drops i thought it would be nice if we placed yet another one of the latest USB 3.0 flash drives to hit the market under our scope. Well we did exactly that and as pointed out by the title of this review today with us we have the latest DataTraveler Elite 3.0 USB 3.0 64GB Flash Drive by Kingston.

   Kingston Technology Company, Inc. is the world’s independent memory leader. Founded in 1987 with a single product offering, Kingston® now offers more than 2,000 memory products that support nearly every device that uses memory, from computers, servers and printers to MP3 players, digital cameras and mobile phones. In 2009, the company's sales reached $4.1 billion. With global headquarters in Fountain Valley, California, Kingston employs more than 4,000 people worldwide. Regarded as one of the “Best Companies to Work for in America” by Fortune magazine, Kingston’s tenets of respect, loyalty, flexibility and integrity create an exemplary corporate culture. Kingston believes that investing in its people is essential, and each employee is a vital part of Kingston’s success. Kingston serves an international network of distributors, resellers, retailers and OEM customers on six continents. The company also provides contract manufacturing and supply chain management services for semiconductor manufacturers and system OEMs.

   Just what kind of read/write speeds will the new DataTraveler Elite 3.0 feature? That was my very first thought once i saw the product announcement by Kingston a while back. Having already released two top-tiers USB 3.0 flash drives in the market so far the DataTraveler Ultimate and the DataTraveler HyperX i was really expecting the DataTraveler Elite 3.0 to fall right between those in terms of speed. Unfortunately when i first saw the product announcement i missed the specifications part which clearly states (at least for me) that the 70Mb/30Mb speeds of the DataTraveler Elite 3.0 are not aimed towards professionals and enthusiasts but rather towards normal/casual users. So let's move ahead and see exactly just how well it does against some of the competition today.