A little black box full of magic (Sandisk Cruzer Micro 16 GB)

Member Name: blissman70

Product:	Sandisk Cruzer Micro 16 GB
Date:	18/10/09 (65 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use with its plug and play, big storage space

Disadvantages: the U3 technology can be a bit of a pain

As anyone who has ever browsed through any of my previous review will know that I tend to like using flash drives, aka pen drives, as I find them a lot quicker to transfer data from PC to PC, as long as you do the usual virus check before hand.
Anyway, I am the proud owner of several of these little technical miracles from many different manufacturers, such as Kingston, Bytestor and Integral. But I have to admit that one of my most favourite Flash drives has to be from the boffins who work for SanDisk, as I have many of these branded products with various memory storage sizes, from a mere 1GB to a rather eye watering 32GB... and it is the SanDisk Cruzer micro 16GB which I am talking about today

** First the technical bits...

* Operating system required... Microsoft Windows XP/2000 (SP4), Vista and Mac X10.1.2 or later.
* Windows ready
* 16GB storage size
* U3 software included. (see below)
* Approximate size is 20mm wide, 57mm long and 8mm thickness
* Approximate weight is 60 grams
* Read speed 25MB's p/s (approx)
* Write speed 15MB's p/s, (approx)
* Plug and play system


** What will 16GB hold ..?

It is like asking what came first, the chicken or the egg..??
This is entirely up to the individual person and what they wish to store, but for arguments sake lets say 16GB will hold around over 4000 average sized songs or way over 16 thousand good quality picture, or even hold maybe fifty good quality movies. But it all depends on the size/quality of images, music, videos and more.
As for holding data, again, this is dependant on the size of the data, but 16GB is really a hell of a lot of space just for data, picture and movies.


** IN CONCLUSION...

This flash drive is a good size, being about the same size as a cigarette lighter, so it easily fits into your pocket without the worry of damaging either the unit or the lining of your trousers.
It has a small key-ring loop attached to the back end which is supposed to be used to attach to a key-ring or one of those ribbon things that go around your neck, but personally I think the ring is a little to delicate and I would be a little paranoid about it breaking.
The actual USB connector is protected not by a cap, which can easily be lost, but by the connector being able to be retracted into the unit itself, genius or what. This really does save losing the cap and leaving it unprotected, plus, it makes the unit slightly smaller for easier transportation.

When it arrived I was slightly amazed, if a little unimpressed, as to the actual size of the packaging it came in, the cardboard it was attached to being about a hundred times bigger than the flash drive itself. I can not understand why so much packaging is needed for small items. Plus, there's the usual battle with the finger slicing, factory toughened plastic which seems to be welded to the cardboard. But, after a while, I managed to rescue the flash drive from its plastic prison without the need for too many plasters.

Anyway, as I have owned other Sandisk of various storage sizes I wasn't surprised to find that there was no cap for protecting the USB metal connector as I knew that it slid into the unit itself.
You may think that the connector will push back into the flash drive when you are trying to push it into your PC but you'd be wrong, the sliding mechanism is strong enough to hold it's own so this doesn't happen.
I did find that the sliding was a little stiff at first but it soon loosened slightly without collapsing completely, giving a smooth action.

As with other Sandisk I have I was well impressed with this 16GB version, it is a cracking size and the read/write speed is excellent, allowing data transfer without the wait. And, as it is plug and play, you are able to transfer the flash drive from PC to PC without the need for any external drives, which helps out a heck of a lot indeed.

Transferring data is as simple as breathing, it is a matter of using either copy/cut and paste, drag and drop or send to... how simple is that then?

** WHAT IS U3..?

U3 is software which is loaded onto the flashdrive allowing automatic launching of certain applications. These specific flash drives are known as 'U3 smart drives' and once connected to a PC will show there own type of what they like to call a 'Launchpad', (which does actually resembles a windows start menu in a way), and this is where you can control the Flashdrives installed programs from.
Using U3 you can now take all your PC's personality with you wherever you go.

**NOTE:

U3 will only work with Microsoft windows at present and even then still has a tough time with vista.

* Personally I tried to bond with U3 but I found it a little irritating and a little too much hassle so I simply uninstalled it from the flash drive, creating a little extra space.
But some people may gel with U3 and find it to be a very useful tool indeed.

If you are interested in buying a flash drive with a vast storage capability and built in U3 technology then this one is for you.
This one can be bought so cheaply, prices varying but for a 16GB unit from amazon will set you back just under a £18.00, although I always advise shopping around for the best deal.
And for this price you can store a vast amount of information in formats such as WAV, MP3, MP4 and AVI, easily transferring from PC to PC...

In all, a great little flash drive which will hold all your data without any hassle.

Summary: Transferring your files in a flash has never been so easy