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.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The typical package is used with the Elite 3.0 model and so at the front you can see the unit and its read/write speeds on both USB 3.0 and 2.0 systems.

At the rear you will find the system requirements, several certification logos and the units serial number.

Did i miss a global memo or something similar? Kingston just like Patriot does not include an lanyard with their DT Elite 3.0 USB flash drive and i really don't know why.

THE DATATRAVELER ELITE 3.0 64GB

Although the design of the latest DT Elite 3.0 is quite good (for my taste) still it's made entirely out of plastic which is not of the same quality as the one used with their more expensive Ultimate G2 flash drive.

I am pretty certain that many of you want to see exactly how large the DT Elite 3.0 is so i placed right next to the last 2 units to reach my hands.

The front section of the drive has a nice silver paint on it along with the product name.

You can check the drive capacity at the glossy black painted rear end.

The Kingston logo is engraved at the other side of the drive.

To eliminate the need for a cap (for all of you who seem to lose them all the time) Kingston followed the pull-back design for their latest DT Elite 3.0.

The model and drive capacity are also engraved at the top of the USB plug (one quick way to tell a fake from a genuine Kingston flash drive).

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 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 May 16th 2012. As always for comparison purposes we also used some of the drives currently available to us such as right now (the ones we no longer have access to are not included in the charts since they were tested using different system configurations).

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK X64

CONLCUSION

   Like i always say results are mostly what matters when reviewing/testing a product which one can actually benchmark its performance and this review is not an exception to that rule (none never is). Unfortunately i don't know what our friends over at Kingston had in mind when they released the DataTraveler Elite 3.0, not with these performance numbers which are even lower than the ones we recorded from the Boost XT USB 3.0 by Patriot. I've been testing products by Kingston for almost a decade now (5 years of official reviews) and i liked pretty much every single one of them but this time over I’m really baffled when it comes to the performance of one of their products. All that's left and perhaps the only thing that can change my mind about the DT Elite 3.0 is its price tag (price/performance ratio) which we will be discussing on the next paragraph.

   Well it seems that things are not that much better in the price department since after digging around at the usual large online stores the DataTraveler Elite 3.0 is actually a tad more expensive than the Boost XT by Patriot (32GB versions) which also comes with another plus, its rugged enclosure. That aside the 64GB version of the DT Elite 3.0 will set you back around USD95 inside the USA and 75Euros inside the EU which also puts it really close to Kingston’s own blazing fast Ultimate G2 USB 3.0 6GB flash drive (obviously the best choice). Overall the DT Elite 3.0 64GB may not be a bad drive, it has good read/write speeds, 64GB of capacity and a pull-design so you will never have to worry about misplacing the protective cap ever again, however the fact remains and it doesn't produce a solid price/performance ratio which would made it easier to compare it with its immediate competition and because of that i can't really recommend it, at least not with the current price tags.

PROS

- Build Quality (Overall)
- Design
- Pull-Design (No Cap Needed)

CONS

- Plastic Exterior
- Price (Compared To The Competition)
- Performance (Compared To The Competition)
- Lanyard Not Included