INTRODUCTION

   For the past year many of you have asked us to increase our USB flash drive related reviews and to also include several outdated and small capacity models since they are still being sold at some places. Unfortunately this is not something we can do not when new models get released all the time so i just wanted to mention this so people will know that it's not that we don't want to but we just can't. That being said as you all know roughly two days ago we tested the Spark 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive by Patriot Memory which left us with the best possible impressions not only because of its metal housing and tiny size but also because of its very good performance numbers. However although the price is right for what the Spark has to offer there are other similarly sized solutions out there which combine good performance levels with higher capacities at roughly the same price. The latest DataTraveler Mini 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive by Kingston is one such drive and today we will see how it compares both to the Spark and to every other drive in our charts.

   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.

   The new DataTraveler Mini 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive was designed by Kingston for people who want extreme portability without having to sacrifice capacity so i was very impressed to see that size-wise it's quite close to the quite older SE9 model (so you can also mount it on your keychain) and that's probably the primary strong card of this particular model. Unfortunately however although the housing is mostly made by aluminum i do like the Zinc alloy used in other similarly sized drives like the SE9 a bit more since it looks and feels much better (of course that's just my personal taste). Regardless the DataTraveler Mini will certainly not disappoint with its looks (especially since it's available in grey, pink and green colors) and size so all that's left for us is to see is exactly how its performance levels compare to those of other drives in the market.