INTRODUCTION

   No matter how many times i talk about portable storage media to people i know they are always divided into two groups the ones who care mostly about read & write performance and the ones who place high storage capacity above everything else. So although some people will get to choose a 256GB USB flash drive with "sufficient" read & write performance levels for roughly the same amount of money others will prefer a 128GB USB flash drive with blazing fast data transfers. Lexar is a storage media manufacturer that has been around for as long as i can remember and even though Micron (parent company) recently announced plans to discontinue the brand (they may end up selling it so we may see them again in the near future) their products will actually be available throughout September (support and warranties will continue) and so we decided to take a look at their JumpDrive P20 and S57 USB 3.0 flash drives to cater to the needs of both mentioned groups.

   Lexar is a global brand of Micron Consumer Products Group, Inc., a subsidiary of Micron Technology, Inc., one of the largest memory manufacturers in the world. Lexar products include industry-leading memory cards for photography and video, card readers, storage drives, high-performance USB flash drives, and memory cards for mobile devices. Lexar products are available worldwide at major retail and e-tail stores, and at www.lexar.com. For more information or support, visit www.lexar.com.

   The Lexar JumpDrive P20 is currently available in 32/64/128GB capacities and with advertised read/write speeds of up to 400MB/s - 270MB/s for the highest capacity (also the one in our hands) it's also the fastest USB 3.0 drive in their product lines. To achieve these numbers the JumpDrive P20 uses the "popular" PS2251-08(PS2308) dual-channel ultra-high-speed USB 3.0-to-Flash micro-controller chip by Phison (supports global wear-leveling and power saving functions) along with Micron MLC NAND flash. The JumpDrive S57 on the other hand is currently available in 16/32/64/128/256GB capacities and is based on the SM3267AE single-channel USB 3.0 controller by Silicon Motion and Micron single-channel MLC NAND flash. This combination may not be as fast as the one contained in the P20 but it still allows our sample (256GB) to achieve read/write performance of up to 150MB/s - 60MB/s. In terms of warranty Lexar covers (and will continue to cover) the P20 line with a lifetime limited one and the S57 line with a 3-year one.