Today we will be looking at two USB flash memory drives from PQI, the Intelligent Drive i810 and the Card Drive U510.  Even in the abundant flash memory drive market these drives offer unique form factors that provide that additional option for consumers' tastes.

PQI is no new name when it comes to products related to memory.  Whether you need system memory for your computer or flash storage, PQI is definitely a name to consider among others.  This has been our first opportunity in taking a look at PQI’s flash products.  In fact, today, we are not looking at just one product; we are taking a look at two of PQI’s latest flash memory products.  Both are different in terms of form factor and size, but will still be good enough to provide representation of the quality of their products.  Today, we will be looking at PQI’s Intelligent Drive i810 and Card Drive 510.  

Let’s start with the Intelligent Drive i810.  The i810 is an extremely small flash drive which makes it ideal as an accessory on a keychain or even as a decorative piece hanging from your cell phone.  At the front is an aluminum cover with the PQI logo which gives the product its elegance.  A keychain string has been included to allow you to easily hang or tie it onto something.  The rest of the USB drive is made of plastic, but I predict the aluminum cover will protect it and the small size of the drive shouldn’t make durability an issue.

At the back of the drive is a sliding mechanism which will allow you to slide out the USB connector to allow you to plug it into your computer or USB hub.  A typical USB connector is housed in metal to protect the contact area.  In this case, it is not and is fully exposed.  Therefore, it is important to only slide out the connector when it is in use.  The known issues with this type of design are that the USB connector is more prone to being scratched.  Also, when inserting the connector into your computer, you can easily plug it in the wrong way since it will still fit both ways.  Until you figure out your computer has detected the drive is when you’ll know you have plugged the USB drive in correctly.

The Card Drive U510 is also a USB flash drive, but with a different form factor.  This is essentially a business card sized flash drive that is very slim.  This makes it different than typical USB drives, because they will leave a small bulge sticking out when wearing tight pants.  This drive can be placed in your pants pocket without that bulge, or it can even be put in your shirt pocket or wallet.   Although this drive is still very durable even for its slim profile, I would advise against putting this in your back pocket and sitting down on it.

The USB connector is pulled out of the corner and extends out being held by a ribbon-like cable.  This drive also has a unprotected USB connector since you can see the gold plated connector.   When plugging the drive into my Windows XP computer, the drive was automatically detected and recognized and I could immediately store files onto the drive.

One minor issue I noticed is that if for some reason the drive is moved or bent even for a little bit, the USB connector may lose connection temporarily and your computer will have to redetect the device.

The performance of the drives were very similar:  the Intelligent Drive was able to achieve an average read speed of 16.3Mb/s with a burst speed of up to 17.9Mb/s.  The Card Drive was able to get 14.8Mb/s with the same burst speed of 17.9Mb/s.   The random access speed of the Card Drive was actually faster than the Intelligent Drive at 9.1ms.

I was expecting the Intelligent Drive to at least have some additional software making the Intelligent Drive live up to its name, but unfortunately, the drive did not come bundled with any software.  The Card Drive does come with a carrying case because I expect this thing would get scratched up with other things in your pocket such as your phone or your keys.

The Card Drive, however, did unexpectedly come with additional software.  It is called the USB notebook software.  This is essentially an all-in one program combined into a single interface.  The interface allows you easily store your document, store secure files, use a portable web browser, be able to bring email with you anywhere, and be able to synchronize your files with your desktop as well.  Each of those programs generally get the job done.  The programs are neither bad nor exceptionally good, they just simply work.

The Card Drive and the Intelligent Drive are unique products whose form factors deviate a bit from your typical sized flash memory disk.   Those who are just looking for affordable flash storage with a unique form factor are going to consider these two options.   On the other hand, there are many other flash drives out there that offer even better performance and with an even stronger software set, therefore, price will probably be the main reason to pick one of these drives up.  The Intelligent Drive is offered in capacities up to 2GB.  The Card Drive is offered in capacities up to 32GB.  Yes, 32GB!  But I expect the 8 and 16GB to be much more reasonable in terms of price, but still expect to pay a premium for that level of storage.