SanDisk Cruzer Titanium Reviewed: Sleek and Durable

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USB flash drives are a dime a dozen these days. Everyone has their own version of a flash drive, each offering the same thing; small, portable storage. So what separates one manufacture’s device from the rest? Well, in my opinion, with respect to flash drives these days; speed, design, and durability.

SanDisk, creators of many different types of portable media storage from compact flash, to secure digital, has their own versions of the popular USB keychain thumb drives. At the top of that product line is their SanDisk Cruizer Titanium. We obtained a 512MB unit from the lovely folks at SanDisk and it definitely exceeds our expectations at first sight!

The SanDisk Titanium came with:

• Pocket Clip
• Key chain Ring
• Lanyard
• CruzerLock 2 software
• CruzerSync
• Cruzer PocketCache

Detailed info on the software can be found on SanDisk's Website.

Here is an excerpt from SanDisk’s website about the Cruzer Titanium.

“Cruzer Titanium is an exceptionally stylish, extremely rugged and incredibly fast USB 2.0 Hi-Speed flash drive, designed to withstand harsh working environments and operating conditions, and physically protect the valuable data of business and power users. Cruzer Titanium is virtually indestructible, featuring a titanium-coated metal casing for unprecedented durability. The SanDisk Cruzer Titanium is one of the fastest USB flash drives on the market with a write speed rating of 13 megabytes (MB) per second and a read speed of 15MB per second.”

Does the drive do everything advertised? Let’s find out!

Design

The design of the Cruzer is definitely eye catching. I’d even go so far as to call it sexy, if I could be so bold. The design houses the USB connector inside its own casing alleviating the pain of worrying about losing your end cap. Just push the slider button and out it pops! When the device is plugged into an active USB port, the slider lights up blue and blinks when the device is transferring; its very eye catching.

The casing itself is a brushed titanium (hence the name) housing that is extremely durable. At the other end of the device opposite the USB connector there is a spot where you can attach the drive to your keychain.

The drive also comes with a little clip so you can attack it to your belt, and a lanyard. Personally I would rather attach it to my keychain, but that’s just me.

All round this device is definitely one of the sleekest USB thumb drives we have seen.

Durability

The device is definitely solid. No creaking, rattling, or bending. In a nutshell, it feels classy, almost like a Mercedes.

SanDisk claims that the device is “Extremely Rugged - Crush-resistant to 2,000 lbs.” I am going to have to just agree with them on the 2,000 pounds, as it is snowing out and I don’t want to put the drive in the snow and run over it with my car. Although, I did stand on it and found out it was definitely crush resistant to 190lbs.

Speed

In this day and age, slow is OLD. Your product needs to be fast to keep up with the demanding lifestyle that some people live. SanDisk list their device speeds as follows:

- 15MB/sec read
- 13MB/sec write

I put the drive through a HD Tach RW test and here are the results:

Test Setup: AMD 2500+, Asus A7N8X Deluxe (NForce2 Chipset), 512 MB OCZ PC3700, Maxtor 6 Y200MO 200GB.

- Random Access: 0.9ms
- Average Read Speed: 16.3 MB/s
- Average Write Speed: 14.5 MB/s

The tests showed better than expected results, even faster than the advertised speeds. The drive isn’t the fastest one on the market, but it is definitely fast. The Corsair Flash Voyager has a read speed of 18.6 MB/s, but once you get above 15, whos counting?

Final Word

Overall the drive is an excellent product. It fits all the criteria one uses to determine which product they should purchase. On top of that, SanDisk is a leading manufacture for all different types of portable media storage; they know memory!

The drive comes in a capacity of 512 MB and is available now for purchase on SanDisk's Website for $129.99. The price is a bit hefty, you can get the Corsair Flash Voyager drive at 1GB for $104, but it doesn't look as sleek as the Cruzer Titanium.

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