Flash Drive review time again guys. Well this drive has been in news for quite sometime in TE now due to the rapid fall in flash drive prices in general, but rather more importantly the Corsair Voyager series getting available in many parts of India. Its nice to see Corsair trying hard to bring in all their arsenal of products to India at very competitive prices.Moreover their no-questions asked 1-1 sawp warranty for 10 years is just awesome 
Enough talking lets get on to it
Introduction
While USB flash drives are really nothing new, Corsair's Flash Voyager series does carry the reputation of being near invincible(read unbreakable) when it comes to actually breaking/abusing the thing. Well lot of videos are there demonstrating it being dipped in water and being boiled but it still works(of cuz nt with the cap open :rofl
Specifications and Features
. Size 3" x 0.75" x 0.5".
· Plug & Play functionality in Windows Vista,XP, 2000, ME, Linux 2.4 and later, Mac OS 9, X and later
· Security application lets you create a password-protected partition.
· Supports sustained read speed of 27MB/sec
· Supports sustained write speed of 13MB/sec
· Ten-year warranty(1-1 swap no questions asked)
Contents, Packing & Build Quality
Corsair packs the Flash Voyager in a clear plastic clamshell as they do with most of their memory products. We will mention that it's pretty well sealed but you might need a knife while cutting the box and if you're not too careful, it'll take a finger off while opening it :rofl: . The bundled stuffs are a lanyard and a USB extension cable which I find missing in almost all flash drive bundles. Missing though is a driver cd for windows 98 which needed to be downloaded from Corsair site.
Now coming to the build quality, there is no compromise at all here. Voyager series has their build quality as their USP , and so we see here is the complete flash drive is covered by a black and blue rubber shell, and while it is quite solid, the rubber has some traction so that it can take in the bumps and the kicks. This is quite I wanted as I can keep it w/o any worries in my purse pocket with the coins and all and I am sure it will be just fine . The company's URL, logo and the drive's brand name are all embossed on the drive itself, giving it a bit of a non-slip grip.There is a small Blue LED which blinks when in operation.They could have gone a bit further though...as the sides are blue in color....may be lighting that part up while the drive is working would have been a very cool idea. Well who knows Corsair reps might think abt that too sometime
One thing that I could only crib about is that , the material being rubber , it is a dust magnet....but u can always close its cap & clean it under a water tap :rofl:
Bundled Software
Includes the True Crypt security application allowing for a virtual encrypted drive using AES-256 encryption (bundled version of TrueCrypt is compatible with Windows Vista,XP and 2000 only). Well what this means is that you can create a partion in the flash drive which will be encrypted by a password.For more information about TrueCrypt(its an open source software) see here
TrueCrypt - Free Open-Source On-The-Fly Disk Encryption Software for Windows Vista/XP/2000 and Linux - Downloads
Once big issue is that once u format the flash drive the data in the encrypted partition is also lost as the partition is a file in the main flash drive. So I guess its quite useless. They could bundle something better rather than something bunny like this.
Detection & Performance
Well detection is not a issue now a days and this was no exception with it being detected in my desktop & laptop w/o any issues. It was tested in few other machines and lappy as well and had no issues there as well
Coming to the performance figures its as usual Atto, Sandra & HD Tach RW
700 MB Single File Copy(write)
Time Taken--- 85 sec
Speed --- 8.23 MB/s
700 MB Single File Copy(Read)
Time Taken --- 24 sec
Speed ---- 29.16 MB/s
So quickly comparing to the Transcend V10 8GB that I tested last week....this is slightly slower (arnd 10%) in write speeds but read speeds are almost 40% faster
Final Thoughts
Well the Flash Voyager 4GB has lived upto its reputation of its series provinding blazing speeds along with superior build quality. Now at its current price of around 900 all inclusive its a real good deal. Though its slightly costlier than the V10 series from Transcned but it has its speed, build quality and 10 years warranty which is worth the 100~150 bucks premium over the Transcend V10 4GB. All in all this is a winner :clap:
Pros:
* Blazing flast read speeds
* Excellent build quality
* Good price point considering all ascpects
* Looks good
Cons
* Cap might get lost
* Dust magnet
* Write speeds could have been faster
* Useless drive encryption software bundle
Enough talking lets get on to it
Introduction
While USB flash drives are really nothing new, Corsair's Flash Voyager series does carry the reputation of being near invincible(read unbreakable) when it comes to actually breaking/abusing the thing. Well lot of videos are there demonstrating it being dipped in water and being boiled but it still works(of cuz nt with the cap open :rofl
Specifications and Features
. Size 3" x 0.75" x 0.5".
· Plug & Play functionality in Windows Vista,XP, 2000, ME, Linux 2.4 and later, Mac OS 9, X and later
· Security application lets you create a password-protected partition.
· Supports sustained read speed of 27MB/sec
· Supports sustained write speed of 13MB/sec
· Ten-year warranty(1-1 swap no questions asked)
Contents, Packing & Build Quality
Corsair packs the Flash Voyager in a clear plastic clamshell as they do with most of their memory products. We will mention that it's pretty well sealed but you might need a knife while cutting the box and if you're not too careful, it'll take a finger off while opening it :rofl: . The bundled stuffs are a lanyard and a USB extension cable which I find missing in almost all flash drive bundles. Missing though is a driver cd for windows 98 which needed to be downloaded from Corsair site.
Now coming to the build quality, there is no compromise at all here. Voyager series has their build quality as their USP , and so we see here is the complete flash drive is covered by a black and blue rubber shell, and while it is quite solid, the rubber has some traction so that it can take in the bumps and the kicks. This is quite I wanted as I can keep it w/o any worries in my purse pocket with the coins and all and I am sure it will be just fine . The company's URL, logo and the drive's brand name are all embossed on the drive itself, giving it a bit of a non-slip grip.There is a small Blue LED which blinks when in operation.They could have gone a bit further though...as the sides are blue in color....may be lighting that part up while the drive is working would have been a very cool idea. Well who knows Corsair reps might think abt that too sometime
One thing that I could only crib about is that , the material being rubber , it is a dust magnet
....but u can always close its cap & clean it under a water tap :rofl:Bundled Software
Includes the True Crypt security application allowing for a virtual encrypted drive using AES-256 encryption (bundled version of TrueCrypt is compatible with Windows Vista,XP and 2000 only). Well what this means is that you can create a partion in the flash drive which will be encrypted by a password.For more information about TrueCrypt(its an open source software) see here
TrueCrypt - Free Open-Source On-The-Fly Disk Encryption Software for Windows Vista/XP/2000 and Linux - Downloads
Once big issue is that once u format the flash drive the data in the encrypted partition is also lost as the partition is a file in the main flash drive. So I guess its quite useless. They could bundle something better rather than something bunny like this.
Detection & Performance
Well detection is not a issue now a days and this was no exception with it being detected in my desktop & laptop w/o any issues. It was tested in few other machines and lappy as well and had no issues there as well
Coming to the performance figures its as usual Atto, Sandra & HD Tach RW
700 MB Single File Copy(write)
Time Taken--- 85 sec
Speed --- 8.23 MB/s
700 MB Single File Copy(Read)
Time Taken --- 24 sec
Speed ---- 29.16 MB/s
So quickly comparing to the Transcend V10 8GB that I tested last week....this is slightly slower (arnd 10%) in write speeds but read speeds are almost 40% faster
Final Thoughts
Well the Flash Voyager 4GB has lived upto its reputation of its series provinding blazing speeds along with superior build quality. Now at its current price of around 900 all inclusive its a real good deal. Though its slightly costlier than the V10 series from Transcned but it has its speed, build quality and 10 years warranty which is worth the 100~150 bucks premium over the Transcend V10 4GB. All in all this is a winner :clap:
Pros:
* Blazing flast read speeds
* Excellent build quality
* Good price point considering all ascpects
* Looks good
Cons
* Cap might get lost
* Dust magnet
* Write speeds could have been faster
* Useless drive encryption software bundle
