Seeing as I am studying various media courses at university, I am constantly needing to have various digital resources with me at all times. Carrying my laptop or macbook around is an option but using a flash drive is a lot easier and more practical. I've been using various 2GB and 4GB usb drives for a while now, but due to recent demand for some of my design skills. I've needed to carry large amounts of photoshop .PSD files and dreamweaver website files. So I started looking...

I was looking around on the web for a while. I wanted something that had a fairly big capacity space, but was reliable and wasn't going to break easy. But most importantly wasn't going to stretch my budget too far. This is when I came across the Kingston DataTraveler 101 with its massive 16GB storage space. I thought this must be expensive and I have used various Kingston products in the past so I knew It would be high quality. So I checked out the price. £30 on Amazon!! I was amazed and thought I would snap it up and ordered it.

Packaging & Un-boxing:
It only took a few days to arrive and was very well packaged. The box securely kept in a bubble lined packet to stop it from being damaged during transit. After removing the box I had high ambitions. The box was colourful and very professional.

I opened up the box. The box its self was initially sealed to stop it from opening. After opening the box, I pulled out the contents. A white cardboard mould held the memory stick in place. The memory stick its self was wrapped in multiple layers of bubble wrap which I must admit was very reassuring and shows the detail Kingston has gone through to protect its products. The bubble wrapped usb drive was then tapped into place in the cardboard mould. Along with this cardboard mould, a simple leaflet/small booklet in multiple languages was included. This gave information about the device, company, help lines and warranty information.

The Device:
The usb stick its self is blue in colour with a grey/silver protective cover to protect the USB bus port. The device in my opinion has a modern sleek style which can appeal to all age groups and best of all it looks great with any colour/style of computer or laptop.

The memory stick is very easy to carry around and is a perfect size for anyone to keep on their person to quickly and easily access their files. The dimensions for this product are W38.85mm X D16.40mm X H6.44mm so it can easily fit in your pocket, purse wallet; anywhere.

Installation:
Like most USB devices now a days this product features a simple 'plug and play' feature. However the way this product triumphs over the rest is by its incredible installation speed. Simply plug it in and within 2 - 5 seconds the drivers are installed and you're away and you can use the device; making it easy and pain free to install and use.

This memory stick has an incredible read speed of up 10mb a second which is massive for a small device like this. I've loaded photos, videos, various Photoshop and Dreamweaver documents from this device and some files have even loaded faster from the memory stick rather than the computer itself. Despite the drive not being labelled with a average or up to write speed from the files I myself have been copying I have seen and recorded my average write speeds. With most files I have seen my average write (copy) speed to be around 8.7mb/s in some cases it has dropped briefly during the transfer to around 5/6 mb/s and in some other cases its topped over 10mb/s which is a massive and impressive write speed for a device as small as this. I myself hate having slow external devices. I want something that's going to be quick and reliable and this memory stick does exactly that!

When I saw this memory stick for the price it was at for a Kingston product I had to quickly snap it up. I knew I would be receiving a high class product from them as I have used their data storage products in the past. No matter what your need or profession this drive can meet any of your storage needs. Whether you're a photographer or just taking a family holiday, a designer, writer, musician or video editor. This drive can handle all your needs, with no fuss. Its supper fast in writing and reading files, meaning there is no more long waits for your important files to get transferred. This device is also compatible with all gaming systems such as Xbox 360, PS3 and Nintendo WII. I've also recently purchased a second one of these memory sticks and now currently use it as a memory unit for my Xbox 360. To show the speed of this device all my saved games, videos and music run off it, quickly with no fuss. It's amazing. I'd highly recommend this memory stick to anyone looking for a quick and easy storage solution with lots of speed with unmatchable space. Perfect for anyone with any storage needs or profession.