SanDisk Cruzer Micro - USB flash drive - 1 GB > Reviews > OK drive, but weak keyring hook.

Author's product rating:   

Memory / capacity	Good
Reliability	Good
Ease of use	Very easy
Speed	Average
Value For Money	Satisfactory

Advantages:	Very small, cheap (at time of purchase)
Disadvantages:	Weak keyring hook design, not as fast as other drives

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

Introduction
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My trusty 128mb USB drive was getting a little old and battered after several years of use at school/college and the capacity was not enough, so I decided that I needed a new one.

I saw the Sandisk Cruzer Micro at under £13 delivered for an OEM version and decided to buy it, Sandisk are a reputable brand and the drive looked pretty small.

Appearance
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When it arrived, it came in a brown jiffy bag with just the clear plastic cover, which is no big deal because I hardly ever read instructions or install software, and the lack of packaging means it's kinder to the environment :D

The actual drive is very small, 60 x 20 x 7mm (approx) and made out of metal (with the rubber cover protecting it) and it has a plastic keyring hook on the end.

Performance
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When plugged into my Apple PowerBook, it was detected immediately and the green light on the end lit up. It flashes to indicate data transfer.

I decided to try some performance tests by copying a folder, 100mb in size containing 8.4 megapixel photographs to the drive and back again. This was on my G4 1.33GHz laptop running Mac OS 10.4.8.

Write speed: 4.77mb/s
Read speed: 9.87mb/s

This seems OK, not the fastest but quick enough for general everyday documents.

Durability
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The overall drive seems pretty well built for such a small device, but it has one weakness- the keyring hook.

I keep it attached to my keyring, but after two months of use, I noticed it was missing after locking my bike up at college. Luckily, I found it on the floor nearby, but the keyring loop was broken. I was very disappointed at the quality because it was used for storing college work/coursework and various data. My old unbranded drive lived on my keyring for several years and the hook was solid.

I contacted Sandisk, but they weren't very helpful and said they didn't cover physical damage. So now I have to keep it in my wallet.

Summary
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Overall, it is an OK drive, cheap and did the job. But if you want to keep it on a keyring, it is best avoided due to the weak hook.

Rating: 3/5.