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 Spare a thought for all the poor USB flash drive manufacturers.
No really.
With the sheer multitude of USB Flash drives available, manufacturers must constantly try to outdo each other. Riding on the success of Asus’s Eee PC, Adata has created a specially branded Eee PC version of its sleek s701 flash drive to stand out from the crowd.
Read on for more..
Adata has a thing about creating small flash drives. We reviewed the
PD-19 a while ago and while we were quite impressed, its folding
mechanism seemed a little on the fragile side. Improving on the PD-19, the s701 series of flash
drives does away with the less than ideal flip mechanism and runs with
a neater, more secure slider format.
At 38mm long, 20.5mm wide and a tiny 8mm thick, the s701 is small
enough to sit on your keyring unobtrusively. And with its sturdy design,
durable enough to survive there.
The drive itself is made up of two parts, an ever so slightly
rubberised plastic and a polished aluminium trim. The keyring loop
located at the non business end is as sturdy as I’ve seen and is
completely integrated into the sleek design. A small white wrist strap is included
in the package which maintains a high level of style and workmanship. The USB port connector is
revealed via a small black ridge located on the s701’s side. This
slider mechanism requires some effort to engage which only adds to the
drive’s air of durability.
Despite its claim to fame, Adata has not overdone the labelling of the s701. Labelling (and branding) on the s701 is minimal
and refreshingly, nowhere on our sample did it indicate the unit’s
sizeable 8GB storage capacity. The only labelling present was on the
polished metal opposite the sliding mechanism. While not visible in our
photos, the side contains a small Adata logo followed by the
inscription “SPORT SERIES FOR Eee PC.” The included wrist strap also
follows this minimalistic - dare we say stylish - labelling, with a
sole Eee PC logo on the polished metal clip.
While the packaging is clearly branded with the Eee logo, the s701 will
work on a regular sized laptop or PC with support for Windows
98/98SE/Me/XP Vista+, OSX 9.0+ and Linux 2.4+. Drivers can be
downloaded from Adata where necessary, ie: Windows 98. Physically the
drive supports USB 2.0 with backwards compatibility with USB 1.1.
The drive performed well in testing but not overly so. When connected to a laptop USB 2.0
port, the speed test results were acceptable but certainly not
stellar. The s701 demonstrated an average read speed of 15.5 KB/s and
write speeds averaging around 5.5 KB/s. As an everyday USB drive these speeds are fine, but as a main storage drive on your Eee, the s701 may leave you wanting.
The s701 comes with a lifetime warranty and claimed data retention of up to 10 years.
While the white Eee PC Edition of the s701 makes for a stylish
companion to your Eee PC, the s701 range of drives are available in a
variety of colours and capacities - from 2 to 8GB.
To find out more about the s701 range and where to purchase these stylish drives, visit Adata’s website. |
