Introduction
I would like to thank
Verbatim &
Verbatim EUMEA for supplying the review sample.
The company sells all kinds of storage devices, from write once media like CD-R and DVD-/+R to rewritable like CD/DVD-RW and USB 2.0 storage devices. Verbatim also offers input devices for the PC:
A quote from the Verbatim USA website:
Quote:
Since its beginning in 1969, VerbatimŽ has been at the forefront of the evolution in data storage technology. Today, more than 30 years later, Verbatim remains one of the most recognizable names in the data storage industry.
Customer-driven, Verbatim is known for adding considerable product value--above and beyond its competitors--to established media technology. As an industry pioneer, Verbatim is recognized for the role it plays in early product development and commercial product introduction of new technologies. Verbatim's leadership role is especially apparent in the evolution of optical media recording including MO and the CD/DVD family of products.
Along with its technological innovations, Verbatim has always been recognized universally for its superior manufacturing practices. Verbatim was the first media company to receive ISO certification, the de facto standard for quality management systems worldwide. This commitment to quality translates into consistent product performance and reliability. In addition, Verbatim provides toll-free technical support and service to enable its customers to maximize the performance of its products.
As a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, a recognized world leader in the chemical and computer industries, Verbatim is ideally positioned to take advantage of changes in the market while continuing to challenge the frontiers of data storage.
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Packaging
The Verbatim USB Drives come packaged in clear plastic. This is the type of packaging where you better have some scissors at your immediate disposal, as it is welded shut all around. The front lets you take a good look at the blue USB Stick and also mentions that it is quite fast: 14MB/s write and 25MB/s read speed. The back lists simple how to use instructions in multiple languages, as well as a comparison chart between the different USB storage products offered by Verbatim.
Besides the USB drive itself, Verbatim has included a black, high quality lanyard and some stickers to label your USB stick.
A Closer Look
The shape of the Verbatim Store 'n' Go series is kept identical across the board and is quite traditional. The only thing that differs is the color used. The "Pro" series is blue, while the "standard" series is red. There is also an "U3 Smart Drive" series which has a silver shell.
The top of the Stick sports the Verbatim Logo and an LED which lights up upon access of the drive. The other side has a little spot for labels and the actual size of the stick - in this case 2 GB. The back of the stick can be used for the included Lanyard or a key change. This is located in the back of the stick, so the worst that can happen is a lost cap, instead of loosing the stick and being left with the cap on a key change.
The USB plug is covered by a firmly fitting cap which by itself is not very sturdy. The fit is tight enough, so that you do not have to worry about losing it during transportation.
Software
The USB stick comes preloaded with three PDFs and two applications. One of the PDF files is about the stick itself, while the two others are related to the included software.
V-Key
V-Key is a simple program to manage your USB Stick. The first thing it does is place a shortcut on your desktop.
The software itself is quite small and displays the total and available capacity of the stick. You can also "eject" the hardware, so that the USB stick can be removed safely. The main aspect of the software is data management. You can synchronize files between different folders and turn write protection on or off.
As soon as you plug in a Verbatim USB stick into a USB port, a little image appears by the system clock letting you know that the device have been detected. A similar message appears as soon as the stick may be removed.
V-Safe
The V-Safe application lets you password protect any portion of the Store 'n' Go Drive.
The interface is quite forward. Just pull down the slider on the right as far as you wish. Then enter a password, confirm it and make sure to enter some sort of hint which can be used in case you forget your password. My hint was "What website is the best?", in other words - my stick would not be safe with
Techpowerup.com readers
.
Once logged in, the user can access the protected portion of the memory stick. V-Key will let you access either the unprotected or protected portion of the drive. You cannot access both at the same time.
To log out of the "privacy zone", just double click on the icon on the Verbatim Store 'n' Go.
Performance
We used the following devices for our comparison:
- OCZ Rally 1GB
- OCZ Mini Kart 1GB
- Super Talent RBST 1GB
- Corsair Flash Voyager 1GB
- Sandisk Cruzer Titanium 512MB
- Sandisk Cruzer Micro 2GB
- A-Data Football Disk 512 MB
- A-Data My Flash PD7 1GB
- Generic Stick USB 1.1 256MB
We used HDTach in the following two benchmarks.
HDTach results are quite slow, but this is most likely due to some problem in the benchmark software, as we will see later on.
Many high-speed USB drives offer nice transfer rates, yet have slow access times. Access time is quite the important feature. The Verbatim Store 'n' Go PRO scores a great 0.6ms, sharing the best access time with the A-DATA's PD7.
To get a feeling how the speed with different sized files is, we used the ATTO disk benchmark.
The benchmark actually shows the true potential of the Store 'n' Go PRO. It comes closer to the advertised read speed of ~25MB/s and write speed of ~14MB/s. It is safe to say that this USB memory stick is quite fast, even though it scores somewhat low in HDTach, which is probably a bug in HDTach.
Value & Conclusion
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- The Verbatim Store 'n' go PRO 2 GB goes for about $45. This is almost twice the amount when compared to slow "standard" and thus slower variants by other manufacturers. But the included software and high speed justify the price
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- Quite fast - well above average
- Justified price
- Good included software
- Nice grip, solid cap
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- Plastic cap could get lost
- Quite big by today's standards
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| 8.7 |
The Verbatim Store 'n' Go PRO gives the user security and manageability in one. The speed and great access time of the USB device make this a great product. The included software is easy to use and gives users the ability to secure data on the USB memory stick, so there is no worrying about data thieves getting their hands on any classified information.
Verbatim's Store 'n' Go series covers everything from memory sticks with a lot of space to high speed variants with the security included. The Store 'n' Go PRO series is a solid, fully featured and high speed offering.
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