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Sandisk Cruzer Slice 8GB
by topsyturvy
I do a lot of computer work in my job and always need to back up files but not only do I need to do this for my job, also for my personal life I need to back up music files and so on. This is why I knew it was time to buy yet another USB Drive and I have purchased from SanDisk before so they were my preferred choice. I was unsure really ... about what size to get but I went for 8gb as I thought that size would be just enough for what I was needing it for as I didn't want to spend too much and to get too big a USB drive would be pointless as I would be better getting an external hardrive.
APPEARANCE
The SanDisk Cruzer Slice is quite distinct looking and all of the Cruzer Slice range look the same. It is quite sleek and is a rounded rectangular shape but has the SanDisk logo in red on the side. The reverse tells you the capacity and has a few markings for safety on it. It has an indent on each side to add an almost streamlined look to it and then on the side is a red slider button which is what you slide left to right to push out the actual USB connection.
SANDISK CRUZER SLICE
The internal memory of this USB stick is 8192MB and it is a Hi-Speed USB. To ensure this works with your operating system you will need to have Linus, Apple MacOS X 10.1.2 or above and Microsoft Windows Vista, XP or 7 so in all honesty an up to date system. The USB stick is easy enough to use as soon as you get it, it is literally read to use as there is no installation required. When you put this into a new computer you will notice it will install the relevant drivers and then it will come up as a Removable Disk and you can name your USB stick.
I store everything on my USB, whether it be a text document or photos or music, or even video files and design files. It doesn't take a lot of time to transfer files onto this and so far so good with this I have not really had any problems with it. Sometimes when I put this into my laptop, it doesn't always show up so I have to use another USB port, but that could be an issue with my laptop rather than the memory stick. Once it does register though it shoes up instantly and you can open the folder to view the files.
You can either play files directly from your memory stick of just drag and drop them onto another computer's desktop. With 8gb, I have found this an ideal size for storing items and when it comes to removing files, I just delete them from the memory stick and it is clear again and ready to use. When it is time to remove the stick you just need to make sure you eject it safely as if you don't you could corrupt files and cause damage which you don't want or you will lose files. I tend to use this on a select few computers to prevent picking up viruses.
The USB is a really good buy, my only issue with it is when you slide out the USB stick because it is on a slider, you have to hold the sticking out button as you put it into the USB port or the stick goes back into the case. It is annoying as it should be a lot easier, I think they are trying to be crafty with the stick sliding out but a lid would probably make life easier. The stick is easy to carry around in my handbag and overall is a reliable method of back up for now.
COST
The SanDisk Cruzer Slice can be purchased on Amazon.co.uk and is currently sold at the cheapest for £9.39 which is reasonable enough I think.
The official SanDisk website is http://www.sandisk.co.uk/uk
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Sandisk Cruzer Slice 8GB
by Randal
Over the years I've probably collected a great number of USB sticks of varying sizes (I still have some old ones with a 'massive' 125Mb capacity!!), but in my experience, Sandisk always seem to be able to produce a good quality reliable product for a very reasonable price, and this 8 GB version from their Sandisk Cruzer range carries on ... with that tradition. As files grow bigger and more numerous, the ease at which you can transfer them between computers can become a problem as the constraints of the size of your usb stick become apparent (as my 'redundant' 125 Mb stick quickly finds trying to transfer work files!!) So 8GB of space in a flash drive is the answer to all your problems.
Sandisk are synonymous with making good quality usb sticks, or in this case, pen drives as they are commonly referred to, and just to back up that trust in their quality products, Sandisk also give this item a 2-year warranty. Now these drives are commonly used for transfer files from one device to another, or, with this amount of capacity, it can be used as a simple storage device to back up any important files that you store on your computer.
What is it? For around £9 from Amazon, it is basically just a small electronic storage device. Only being a few inches long and very slim, it can easily fit into your pocket or bag and actually looks quite stylish. On the side of the device you have a little recessed slide button. Push down on this and then push forward and that will expose the usb plug bit of the device out of the front of the housing. The idea is that you keep pushing forward until the device clicks to a stop and that indicates that the plug is out in the fully out and locked in the open position ready for use. You can then push the plug into an empty usb socket on your computer. Of note, the drive is usb 2.0 compliant, but is also backwards compatible to usb 1.0. Your computer should then recognise it, whereupon you can bring it up in your 'My Computer' view and transfer files back and forth between the pen drive and your computer. When you've finished with any transfers, you can unplug the device and simply push and pull the button to draw the usb plug back into the device.
What's it like in use? Well, it works in that you can easily transfer files back and forth with it, but it's not going to win any speed records for doing so. It has a claimed rated read speed of 15Mb/s which may sound fast, but the write speed is only 10Mb/s, and that applies to only the first 20Mb of data, after which it seems to slow down. As I said previously, I've got quite a collection of pen drives and I would probably rate the speed of the Sandisk versions around average if there was a race with all the varieties. But then I weigh that against the reliability that I have with this product and the 2-year warranty, and most of the times I need and use a pen drive, I'm not really in a desperate hurry to transfer the files, and to me, an extra few seconds or so on a full 8GB transfer isn't really going make me loose sleep at night.
To totally balance this review, we must also consider the negatives, and the only one that I could note is more to do with the actual design of the pen drive. The problem you have is that, whilst the usb plug can be drawn back into the body of the device for protection, it still leaves the open end of the plug open to the elements. So if you store this in your pocket or your handbag, there is a strong chance that dust and dirt will get into the open end and around the contacts. You then open the device and try to plug it into your computer, and that process than rams and compacts the dirt into your usb connection, and that could then lead to read/write failures etc.
In summary, in my opinion this is a good usb flash drive, not brilliant, but good. It does have loads of storage space, does look quite stylish and is backed by that 2-year warranty, but I do have some concerns over the open end bit of the usb plug. Hence, balancing everything up, I can give this a 4* recommendation.
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