Crucial Gizmo! 2.0 High Speed Flash Drive

     Cigarette lighter sized portable flash drives have been out for a few years now, but I'll be the first to admit to just how slow they are compared to other mass storage devices. Sure they are faster than a floppy drive, but you would expect flash memory to perform much faster. Well, there is a new solution to the speed problem, it's called the Gizmo! 2.0 from Crucial Technology! Available in 64mb, 128mb, 256mb and 1gb sizes, even the smallest version has more than 40 times the storage capacity of a standard floppy! Crucial also states that this baby is up to 40 times faster than the original USB flash drives. Could this be the solution to the speed problem we've been looking for? Let's take a look and see!

Specs

The Crucial Gizmo! Hi-Speed USB Flash Drive

• Transfers data at speeds up to 480 megabits per second
• Small form factor (66.5 mm by 16.5 mm) so multiple drives fit into neighboring USB ports
• LED indicates when data is transferring
• Secure-D software included for data encryption and password protection
• Plug and Play™
• Available in 64MB, 128MB, 256MB, 512MB and 1GB

System requirements

• Win ME/2000/XP
• Mac OS 8.6 and above
• Available USB 1.1 or 2.0 port

For Hi-Speed performance

• Win ME/2000/XP
• Mac OS 9.1 and above
• Available USB 2.0 port

Each Gizmo! comes with

• Lanyard
• Key ring
• Multilingual user guide

Backed by Crucial's limited lifetime warranty

Performance

     There is no doubt about it, the Gizmo! 2.0 is much faster than some of my old USB flash drives. It's even faster than Crucial's Gizmo! 1.0. Just remember that in order to take advantage of the Gizmo! 2.0's speed is to use it in a USB 2.0 port. So where are the fancy charts showing speed? For some reason, everything we have ever tried to benchmark flash drives with either crashes, or gives us bogus results. So for this review, you'll just have to take my word for it when I say "The Gizmo! 2.0 is faster than older flash drives!".

     The cool thing about Crucial's flash drives is that they give you a sweet security utility so that no one but the owner can access the info on the drive. The utility is simple and easy to understand; it's either locked, or unlocked. The utility is already installed on the drive, so all you have to do is click on the .exe file and make your settings.

Conclusion

     With the high speed of the Gizmo! 2.0, it is sure to be a big hit. It will definitely replace my older USB flash drives! The durability of past Crucial flash drives have been nothing short of amazing. My last Gizmo! 1.0 has gone through the washer and dryer a total of 3 times so far. It has also cooked on the dash of my car in 100 degree heat for days. All this and it still works like a champ! I can only hope that the Gizmo! 2.0 can survive this kind of abuse!  Needless to say, this is the best USB flash drive I have ever used. The price is also a major plus. The 256mb version has 177x the capacity of a floppy drive, but it only costs $59.99 on Crucial.com! As far as the negative side goes, the only thing some people will not like is that it is only compatible with the Windows and Mac operating systems.