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For the past year many of you have asked us to increase our USB flash drive related reviews and to also include several outdated and small capacity models since they are still being sold at some places.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.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE DATATRAVELER MINI 64GB

Kingston ships the DT Mini inside the standard package so you can check it out prior to purchasing it.

At the rear we see the system compatibility list along with a few words about the product (focused around the available drive capacity) and several warning and certification logos.

Inside the package you will just find the tiny (42.33mm long, 12.66mm wide and 5.98 thick) DataTraveler Mini (no keychain and no lanyard).

I'm sure many of you will wonder about the size of the DT Mini so as always we placed it right next to several other drives including the Spark and the SE9.

The model name, drive capacity and USB compatibility are placed at the top of the drive while at the rear we see the company logo and the drives serial number.

Unfortunately although most of the housing is made by aluminum the rear end is plastic so this may wear off if used with a keyring/keychain.

Once again no protection cap so you should pay extra attention on where you place it.

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-1000MB 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 our main rig running Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Service Pack 1 complete with every update until January 19th 2014. As always for comparison purposes in the charts you will also find many other flash drivers which have been tested using the same exact test bench as the one in this review (we really can't keep every flash drive we get forever and also even if we could testing them all again and again would simply not be possible).

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK X64

CONCLUSION

   When Kingston told us that they were sending a tiny USB 3.0 compatible flash drive with a capacity of 64GB i was quite intrigued to see how it would do at least up until the moment i read its specifications sheet and learned that it has a read speed of up to 70MB/s and a write speed of 15MB/s. Well as always these are average performance numbers something which we can tell just by looking at our charts. Of course the DataTraveler Mini 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive will not be winning any speed competitions anytime soon but it's primarily made by aluminum, has a very small housing, does quite good in read speeds (up to 90MB/s) and offers large capacity so especially if the price is right i think we can cut it some slack when it comes to write speeds.

   Well it seems that the price is more than just right since currently the Kingston DataTraveler Mini 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive retails for just USD47.67 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 39Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk). Granted as mentioned earlier the DT Mini 64GB is not the performance king so for professionals who need the best possible r/w speeds it may not be the ideal choice but for regular consumers i think that Kingston has hit the sweet spot between price and capacity not to mention size. In the end however although we liked everything about it performance does play a significant role in our conclusions and so although we can't award it with our Platinum award because of this that's where our Golden Award comes in.

PROS

- Overall Build Quality
- Small Size & Lightweight
- Read Speeds
- Design
- Available Capacity
- Price (For Some)
- Available Colors (For Some)

CONS

- Write Performance (For Some)