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Sandisk Cruzer Micro Skin 8 GB
by Abski2001
I tend to use my Scandisk Cruzer USB Micro Skin stick for the playing and transfer of movies I have downloaded and watch them through my Xbox rather than for storage for which I have an external hard drive. It is both easy to use and simple to transfer data from and to. I have found from both experience and reviews that Scandisk is a ... very good and reliable brand to use.
The USB stick has dimensions of 7.9mm height, 52.2mm depth and 18.95mm width and thus is very small and compact as you would expect with a USB stick. The quality of the sick is very good in my opinion with a solid and study silver metal casing surrounded by a plastic jelly-like covering which keeps it from getting scratched, damaged and dirty. The USB adapter is on one end of the stick with a removable protective cap that is not attached in any way to the stick, which could be problematic due to misplacing it. The other end of the USB stick has a small hook that you can attach a string to.
The size of the Scandisk USB is a reasonable 8GB, which is large enough for me to put a film or a few episodes of TV series on. I store these on my pc so I have no need to keep them on my USB stick and can simply delete everything once I have watched them. The stick is, as I said above, very simple to use. There is no included software to install and so you can simply plug it in and go. The connection is the standard USB 2.0 port connection compatible with almost all equipment nowadays.
The spec states this USB stick is compatible with Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Mac OS 9.1.x+, OS X v10.1.2+, Linux.
The transfer rate of the USB is very fast and impressive and playing things like movies through my Xbox is great. The end of the USB has a green LED light when connected to a device and this flashes during transfers which I personally like as I can see it working hard!
This is not only a reliable USB stick it is also a budget one, being about £10 when I bought it. For the size and quality of product I could not ask for better. Available in high street shops such as Curry's and online at Amazon, Play etc. I would highly recommend a Scandisk portable USB stick to anyone looking!
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Sandisk Cruzer Micro 4 GB
by Randal
This is another one from my usb flash drive 'collection' that I have acquired over the years, and perhaps one of the ones that I appear to use the most. Sandisk are normally renowned for making good quality memory based products, and hence you'll find their branding throughout items such as this usb flash drive (or pen drives or memory ... sticks or whatever else you want to call them), SD cards for cameras and portable games consoles etc, micro SD cards for phones etc etc. Hence, having used their products for a number of years in my cameras, phones and other usb sticks, I have sort of grown comfortable in the quality and security that they bring to my precious data, confident that my data is safe and will not be lost through some electronic error.
To be honest, I've had this particular device that long that I can't remember what I paid for it from Amazon, but I suspect it was around the £15 mark (a few years ago), although checking on Amazon this morning, they do have this exact same model selling for £199.99 (yes that is correct - and with free shipping!!) from a company called 'Think Accessories', which I think is a tad overpriced bearing in mind that most other 4GB pen drives on Amazon are under the £5 mark. But for you lottery winners that desperately want this particular drive .....................
For those of you who don't understand what this is or does, it is basically a small portable electronic (for want of a better word) 'box' which you can use to store and transfer your electronic documents or files (e-mails, music, pictures, letters etc) from one computer to another. Small enough to attach to a key ring, you can carry numerous electronic bits of information with ease and quickly transfer data using the usb ports on your computer (or even your TV or games consoles as many have nowadays).
Looking at the actual physical product, the device measures 57mm long by 21mm by 8mm thick and comes complete with the Sandisk Cruzer branding on the outside of the plastic casing. For ease of carriage, you also have a small key ring attachment point in the bottom right hand corner. So nothing special to look at and fairly discrete overall.
The actual 'business bit' of the device (the usb plug) is hidden away in the front of the device. To get it out, you have a little recessed button affair on the top of the device. Push your thumb down on the button and push forward, and that will expose the usb plug bit of the device out of the front of the housing. Keep pushing forward until you hear a click, which is the point at which the usb plug is locked in the open position at the front of the housing. You can now push the device into an empty usb socket on your computer. You'll know when the pen drive has been activated because the button bit of the drive will light up red/orange. To close it up, just do the reverse process to draw the plug back into the housing until you hear a click, which is the locked in position for the usb plug.
In terms of your computer operating system, this pen drive operates with Microsoft Windows based machines, primarily XP, Vista and Windows 7, as well as Mac based machines. Putting it into your computer and your system should instantly recognise it and bring it up in your 'My Computer' view (if you're using a Windows based PC). From there, you can open it as a window and drag files back and forth as required. Of note, it is also usb 2.0 compliant, backwards compatible to usb 1.1.
In terms of performance, it's not slow. You can quickly transfer files back and forth with ease, and to me, it seems to be just as fast as any other pen drive that I have. With regards to the capacity, 4GB is a lot of space and would probably satisfy most people's needs nowadays, but how many files etc that relates to would be very much dependant on the size of files used. A document may be a few hundred kb, a presentation a few Mb, a music file may be 5Mb, a video could be 20Mb etc.
One point that is sort of unique to Sandisk pen drives (which I've not seen on other makes) is that it comes pre-loaded with a small program called U3 which is sort of loosely based on the Windows 'Start' menu. Detailed as the U3 Launchpad, it allows you to copy and move files back and forth between your pen drive and your computer. OK, a nice feature, but in my opinion totally unnecessary because you can simply open the pen drive as a window and move files back and forth, which does save a few extra clicks of having to open the Launchpad etc to do the same job.
Another point is that it does get a little annoying in that you don't appear to be able to remove this U3 program from the pen drive. When you put the device into your usb socket on your computer, it will actually bring up 2 drives in your 'My Computer' window. One will be your main usb pen drive storage area (around 3.8GB), the other will be this U3 System (about 5.44 Mb). If you try to format the pen drive, the U3 System bit will remain, and it then goes on to automatically create a folder system in the main storage area of the pen drive, which may be a little frustrating to those who may wish to create their own folder system. I understand that there are (difficult?) ways of getting rid of this U3 utility (big hammer and a flame thrower springs to mind!) but personally, I just live with it and dump my files on to the drive as I want to.
Another (minor?) negative point is more to do with the overall design of the drive. Whilst you can draw the usb plug back into the housing for protection, the internal contacts of the plug are still left open to the elements through the open end of the plug. Ok, this drawback ability means you don't have to contend with losing a protective cap that you normally have on other flash drives, but the issue I have found is that when you carry it in say your trouser pocket (as many would), I have found that you can end up with all sorts of dust and bits stuck in the opening, which is not good when you then try and ram the usb into your usb socket on your computer. A minor point, but one that can be annoying at times.
In summary, if we ignore the current random price on Amazon of £199.99 for this device, and assume around the £5 mark, this is a good buy for the price, giving you loads of capacity. However, that U3 utility can be annoying and frustrating, and then you have the additional minor issue of the usb plug being open to the elements. So balancing everything up, I would give this a 4 star recommendation.
Review also on Ciao under Randal1.
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Sandisk Cruzer Micro 2 GB
by JJJJ
As one of the most trusted names in the world of computer memory, Sandisk manufacture a range of flash drives including the numerous 'Cruzer' models. Today i'm taking a look at the 2GB Micro Cruzer which is available to buy from Amazon for only £2.99.
Design & Appearance
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At first ... glance, the Micro Cruzer looks like any other flash drive on the market with its slim and black rectangular body - however, it does have a gimmick; which in this case is the ability to retract the metal USB prong section back inside its casing. This not only makes the device smaller, but it affords a certain amount of protection to the product. The process is activated by flipping the switch on the Cruzer's body back and forth, a process which is easy to do and strangely addictive. The Cruzer is light and well built, and i've had no reliability problems with mine over the years.
All Mod Cons
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This and many other Cruzer drives utilise something called U3 technology, which allows you to run software from your home computer on any other PC that you plug the Cruzer into - similarly U3 will bring your personal preferences with you wherever you go. For the most part, the technology does work very well - as long as you're fairly tech-savvy, and you're using a relatively modern version of Windows. Fear not, if you're not good with computers (or have no idea what i'm talking about) then you can simply use the drive as a regular flash drive without all the U3 nonsense. To be honest, it's not something that I personally choose to use.
Additional Features & Final Word
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In terms of additional features, the Micro Cruzer has a small keyring loop (very useful for those who like to have a flash drive with their keys), and when in use, the product illuminates with a (fairly bright) amber glow. The product is USB2 compatible, and although I can't find exact figures for the read and write speeds, in general it's pretty quick to transfer my files. Overall, I've found the Sandisk Micro Cruzer to be an impressive flash drive both in terms of its build quality and features - at the current price it's definitely something that I would recommend.
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