INTRODUCTION

   Portable storage space has always been important to me not only because i've always liked sharing and talking about some of my work with colleagues over coffee but also because i always want to carry around with me important software such as benchmarks which i can use with products/samples that may never find their way to our lab. Of course compared to many years ago right now with 2TB models already available and 3/4TB already in the works USB flash drives can clearly rival portable hard disk drives (PHDs). Still due to high prices these models are nowhere near to the price and performance of their PHD counterparts so naturally most consumers turn towards smaller capacity models. The most popular ones currently are 128GB ones and so today we decided to take a look at the two newest models in the TransMemory line by Toshiba the U363 and U364.

   Toshiba Electronics Europe GmbH (TEE) is the European electronic components business of Toshiba Electronic Devices and Storage Corporation. TEE offers a broad IC and discrete product line including high-end memory, microcontrollers, ASICs and ASSPs for automotive, multimedia, industrial, telecoms and networking applications. The company also has a wide range of power semiconductor solutions as well as storage products including HDDs, SSDs, SD Cards and USB sticks. TEE was formed in 1973 in Neuss, Germany, providing design, manufacturing, marketing and sales and now has headquarters in Dusseldorf, Germany, with branch offices in France, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. TEE employs approximately 300 people in Europe. Company president is Mr. Akira Morinaga.

   Both the U363 and U364 TransMemory USB 3.0 flash drives are available in 32/64/128GB capacities, can reach read speeds of up to 120MB/s and feature the "mid-end" Phison PS2251-07(PS2307) USB-to-Flash micro-controller chip along with Toshiba TLC NAND flash modules. Still although the specifications of both drives are identical they are aimed towards different audiences all together since the U363 model features a zinc alloy (metal) enclosure and is recommended for use with netbooks, laptops and desktop computers whereas the tiny U364 is the size of a USB plug and thus also recommended for use with tablets and smartphones. Last but not least Toshiba covers both the U363 and U364 with a 5 year limited warranty.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE TRANSMEMORY U363 & U364 128GB

Both USB 3.0 flash drives are sold in regular blister packages that have their capacity, read speed and aimed usage showcased at the front as seen above.

The 5 years "premium" warranty is printed at the rear of the package along with the OS compatibility, serial number and barcode, 2D barcode and product information in several languages.

The 6g heavy U363 drive measures 39mm in length, 12.2mm in width and 4.5mm in thickness while the 3g heavy U364 measures just 16.8mm in length, 15.2mm in width and 6.8mm in thickness (both have their capacities printed at their top as seen above).

Several certifications and the country of origin are printed at the rear.

Only the U363 features a lanyard opening at the rear.

As usual we placed the drives at hand next to several of the ones we use in the lab to showcase their size (tiny size in this case).

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 (0 = we were unable to complete that test).

   All tests are performed with our main rig running Microsoft Windows 10 Pro installation on a HyperX Predator 480GB PCIe SSD with all updates installed up to the 15^th of January 2018. 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

   With many USB 3.0/3.1 Gen.1 flash drives currently in the market easily getting close or even breaching the 200MB/s performance mark in both read and write it’s our hope that one day the same will apply to tiny models like the U363 and U364 by Toshiba. Still our main issue is not their read performance since at around 100MB/s it’s acceptable but rather with their write performance which sat beneath 20MB/s during all our tests. Granted this is not the first time we’ve seen such numbers since even the DataTraveler Micro 3.1 by Kingston offers similar write performance (read however is significantly better with numbers going up to almost 145MB/s) but that was launched almost 2 years ago and so yes we did expect something slightly better or at least just as good. On the other hand what they lack in performance both drives (especially the U364) make up in size and weight since they are among the smallest ones to arrive here to date.

   So how much do the brand new TransMemory U363 and U364 128GB USB 3.0 flash drives cost? Well since both were launched by Toshiba Electronics Europe they are currently only available here for a price of 44Euros for the TransMemory U363 128GB (Amazon.co.uk) and 47Euros for the TransMemory U364 128GB (Amazon.co.uk). Sure performance is far from what many of us would like to see but thanks to their tiny sizes and very affordable price tags both the TransMemory U363 and U364 128GB USB 3.0 flash drives by Toshiba get our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Tiny Size
- Weight
- 128GB
- 5 Year Warranty
- Price

CONS

- Overall Performance