I benchmarked 6 different metal USB sticks

Armand1@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 1323 points –

Background

I have had the same Kingston DataTraveller DTSE9 since around 2010, when I was still in school. I've carried it on my keychain for at least 12 years and it still works, its "the old reliable".

That said, it's slow. Very slow. I use it mostly as a boot USB for Linux / Windows, so I need several sticks with decent random read speed, and decent write speed for when I update them.

My criteria were:

  • All-metal construction for durability, including the keychain loop
  • Sits well on a keychain next to keys
  • Reasonable speed, including random reads.

Testing method

I evaluated the sticks in two ways.

I ran CrystalDiskMark with 256 MiB (x5) configuration.

I also measured the angle at which the USB stick sits on a keyring. I found that several of them could not sit perpendicular to a keyring it because of their geometry, which makes it difficult to comfortably use them next to keys.

At the datum of 0 degrees, the key sits perpendicular to the keyring.

Results

The competitors

Here are the 6 main competitors in this space I bought.

All transfer units are in MB/s.

Product Price (£) Angle on keyring (0deg is best) Sequential reads Q8T1 Sequential reads Q1T1 Random reads Q32T1 Random reads Q1T1 Sequential writes Q8T1 Sequential writes Q1T1 Random writes Q32T1 Random writes Q1T1
Corsair GTX 128GB 65 (256GB version) 0 470.214 429.330 157.436 19.390 436.990 414.201 166.829 38.937
Samsung Bar 64GB 10 55 305.424 305.268 14.517 13.428 36.434 36.247 20.537 21.619
Kingston DTSE9G3 64GB 11 0 246.705 244.496 13.756 13.028 100.236 110.054 0.484 0.474
Integral Arc 3 10 0 162.336 161.338 15.567 11.188 49.457 47.965 5.032 4.244
Kingston DataTraveller Micro 64GB 11 0 247.000 245.247 13.788 12.961 100.932 101.292 0.496 0.470
Sandisk Ultra Luxe 64GB 12 25 403.863 399.974 12.438 12.054 91.835 91.685 4.272 4.258

Some additional notes:

  • The Samsung Bar had really sharp corners. You might need to file them down like I did.
  • Corsair GTX: the 128GB version is no longer available and the lowest capacity is 256GB. It's more of a portable SSD in the form of a USB stick, which makes it really fast, but it's bulkier than a normal USB stick, though not by much. Often it takes up more than one USB port because it's wide. It's still very good and I recommend it.

Other devices

Some related products I own but don't qualify for this comparison but are offered up here for context.

Here's why they don't qualify.

  • Crucial P3 Plus: It's an NVME SSD. Can be made portable with a good enclosure, but too bulky for what I'm looking for.

  • Samsung 860 Evo: It's a SATA SSD, definitely not the right form factor.

  • Sandisk Ultra Curve: I bought this thinking it was made out of metal, but it was not. It's fairly flimsy plastic.

  • Kingston DTSE9 16GB: This is my old stick. The old reliable. No longer sold, but I've tested its successor.

  • Samsung SD Card: It's a 2016 MicroSD card connected to my PC via a MicroSD-SD adapter and a USB card reader. I included this as a meme.

Product Sequential reads Q8T1 Sequential reads Q1T1 Random reads Q32T1 Random reads Q1T1 Sequential writes Q8T1 Sequential writes Q1T1 Random writes Q32T1 Random writes Q1T1
Crucial P3 Plus M.2 NVME 2TB 1598.227 1332.131 305.220 46.643 1560.989 1452.256 238.134 102.502
Samsung 860 Evo SATA 1TB 564.446 539.913 272.631 43.322 536.440 518.168 238.752 101.313
Sandisk Ultra Curve 160.091 158.859 9.271 9.043 58.680 60.377 2.902 3.209
Old Kingston DTSE9 16GB 18.452 18.220 8.473 8.096 13.626 13.629 0.115 0.026
Samsung Memory Pro Plus Micro SD Card 20.765 20.969 5.146 5.102 19.493 20.316 2.181 3.421

Conclusion

There are no clear winners in this fight.

  • The Corsair GTX is the fastest in all categories by a country mile, but has a larger form-factor than other entries and higher price. Very good, but not for everyone.
  • Samsung Bar has the fastest random writes, and decent performance in other metrics for its USB stick form factor, but sits awful on a keychain due to the angled hole.
  • The Integral Arc 3 has solid random performance, but worst sequential performance than the rest.
  • Sandisk Ultra Luxe gets the best overall balance of performance, but does not sit on the keychain super well.
  • The two Kingston's perform effectively the same, with the Micro being much more compact. That said, that can be a disadvantage on a keyring if there are adjacent items.
  • All competitors (bar the GTX) had similar random reads.

For me, I'd say the right choice is either the Kingston DTSE9G3. It's a nice upgrade over my old DTSE9 and sits nicely next to it's grandfather. If I needed any random writes though, for copying lots of small documents like code files, I'd pick the Integral Arc 3.

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Oh my god, thank you so much for this. I have always had the hardest time finding these exact same requirements, and this is perfect. All metal construction and coexisting with keys has always been a priority for me, but it seems like everyone is inexplicably fine with copping out by just dangling their data on this flimsy little string tied to a brittle plastic case and I cannot understand it.

I'm not currently looking for one at this exact moment, but I will be returning here when I am. You're doing the lord's work out here!

Others have said this but THANK YOU SO MUCH! This is extremely valuable info for me as I pretty much only want full metal flash drives. I have a couple Samsung Bars, and I will absolutely snag a GTX.

Bought December 2007, downtown Portland Radio Shack, which was coincidentally my last purchase from the chain.

It's also the very last of the Disk of Death hacker series started in 1995 on Floppies.

May its light continue to shine (unnecessarily)

Still have the 4GB version of this one somewhere. Bought in the same year

Served be well over the years

Mine has been relegated to BIOS updates, still doing a great job just a bit small these days.

Shit I had one of those. Now I'm feeling all nostalgic remembering fidgetting with the slider

Still have this same usb stick and it works flawlessly

I bought 2, probably around the same time. One of them failed after years of serving as my NAS boot drive, so I replaced it with its twin, and that one is still going strong.

had a bunch of these, the ones with U3 partitions were super hack tools, could autorun apps and scripts like a CD, windows didn't know wtf to do.

I still use Portable Apps on my Windows laptop because a lot of the smaller systems apps don't have an update mechanism coded in, so PA keeps them (relatively) up to date.

This is comprehensive, and impressive. Good job. Saving this post for my next purchase.

One of these took me through university in 2002

I really miss the hardware read only switch.

Computer labs did not have front USB back in those days, so we had to choose between floppies or diving under the desks. I was in the diver club.

32MB was massive for documents at the time. It could hold your entire academic life back then.

Afaik, if it works the same as SD, it just tells the OS/device nicely to not write. Not very secure.

I believe there are small microSD adapters that ensure read only so ymmv

No, back in those days these were very much hardware/firmware based. It's a decade before the SD standard.

I remember 256MB sticks were a game changer for me. 1TB still seems unnecessarily to me. You carrying Wikipedia in there?!

I carry around PowerPoint presentations that contain huge loops of satellite data. I love my 1TB USB stick.

Oh I forgot about those switches. I think that means I probably don't really miss them, I mean, it's not like putting something on it necessarily deletes what's on there and it's kind of hard to accidentally write to one.

It's also from a period where Windows machines were riddled witb viruses that spread by USB. This prevented your drive from getting infected.

There’s one out there, named something like kangaroo, where they actually have signed firmware, and a hardware read/write switch (most of the time, the read/write switch is software based) parentheses.

My husband has had a metal USB stick that is shaped like a key and is very thin specifically for this purpose. I don't know the brand as it's not printed on it, but it's lasted him a long time and I would assume it to win this contest by a landslide. Excellent analysis, very interesting!

For reference, it looks like this (not the same brand):

It would win the "will it fit nicely on a keychain" by a landsline.

However I doubt it would suit OP's needs as the contacts are exposed so durability may be suspect, and seeing as it is generic I doubt the performance is up to his standards.

The contacts were surprisingly robust. Mine just died, sadly.

New ones are crappy knockoffs, but they're cheap enough.

LaCie IAmAKey. No longer made. Current ones are made from aluminum and bend easily. Originals were stainless and rigid.

My 2006 one just died, and I'm so frustrated with the new ones. Fortunately they're pretty cheap, so who cares.

Yep I had a couple aluminum ones, the 90 degree walls by the contacts would always bend inward to make a trapezoid ship on the connector instead of a rectangle and they sucked to try to bend back every time

They are usually no-name brand swag items
Edit: And your picture is USB 2.0

Thanks, I wish more people did their own tests and published them like this since marketing for electronics is loose at best

Yeah, about the only place I trust for electronics reviews is rtings, and usually consumer reports for household appliances. Everywhere else seems infected by the affiliate bug

I'm curious if anyone has ever done a longevity test. Rather than Io performance, I'm more interested in how quickly they wear out.

I don't have any evidence to backup my statement, but for my usecase (Linux booting troubleshooting toolkit) Kingston sticks last a fair while (~10 years), but Sandisk fail sooner (<5years?)

The main thing I've noticed for all brands: there's no warning before failure. They're like nicad batteries... all good, then one day - completely dead. So never keep any data on them that you can't lose.

Yeah at least hard drives usually have the decency to warn you that they're about to die, but USBs will just not work one day and that will be it

I've had my Samsung Bar for 5 years now and no issue with it, if that's worth anything

I had one Samsung Bar fail after two years, the second one still works.

At the moment I'm using a Philips Moon Edition USB stick but only since February. Can't speak for long term usage and didn't do any benchmark but I'm happy so far and the form factor would meet your criteria.

You should benchmark it as I have and post your results!

I'm not surprised the Corsair is better - it looks like there's a whole nvme drive in there.

This fucking rocks, you rock, thanks for making this!!

I didn't see anyone else say this so I'll chime in: when I've had to keep bulky things on a keyring (a CPR pocket mask comes to mind) I'll put it on its own small keyring and then hang that on the main keyring with the keys. It isn't a perfect solution, but it helps a lot.

Handy tip. I used to do that too.

Also had a chain between two rings for a bit of a fidget toy 😅.

you should check out the kingston SE9 G2. It has a smaller loop end and so it works way better on a keychain. unfortunately they didn't keep the feature for the G3.

picture Amazon Link

I remember seeing that around! In the UK you can't buy it anymore. It costs £50-200 on Amazon, here and here

This is dope! I wish there was a proper community that did tests like this in mass using open source standardized methods/hardware.

Pro tip from me (a pro): Never buy flash drives that aren't one metal body. I have broke a 128GB flash drive simply by putting a tad bit too much pressure on it and misaligning the USB connector. It now doesn't work. I also injured one by misaligning the usb in the plastic case. It still works but isn't ideal.

Even if it is one plastic body, the plastic will chip away with insertions. My SanDisk Ultra Dual is in rough shape because of the weak plastic. Meanwhile my SanDisk Ultra Dual Luxe (the metal variant) is still pristine.

Also, don't buy cheap flash drives if you wish to use them frequently. They have terribly slow speeds even if they use a USB 3.0 interface. They might work okay as install media which you only need to use every few months or years, but they have painfully slow write speeds.

Edit: Yes, I know the metal drives have thermal issues. But thermal issues are better then losing the entire drive because the casing chips away and exposes the connector to things that eventually kill it.

I agree of course, hence why I am only picking metal ones. I've lost USB sticks to broken clips and bodies.

Why would they have thermal issues? If anything, they should dissipate heat better than plastic drives.

Or is it that by thermal issues people mean that they get hot to the touch?

Why would they have thermal issues? If anything, they should dissipate heat better than plastic drives.

Look… I almost failed high school chemistry.

This is probably my favourite metal flashdrive of all time. I had a 1GB of the first generation and then later another usb3 one of 32GB

These days I carry one of these on my keychain.

Surprisingly fast given the size. Will do 300MB/s sequential read. About 90MB/s write

I use medicat/ventoy on it with windows 11 , debian and linux mint ISOs on it.

I did see that second one, but I realised it would not fit my criteria for the angle of the hole, so I didn't get one.

Wow, great work!

Due my own personal bad habits, I fear I wouldn't see 12 years out of most of those because of the lack of caps. A lot of random stuff ends up in my pocket when I'm doing projects. Screws and other things that will not have happy fun times with bare type A pins.

You'd be surprised! That old USB key has gone through the washing machine several times by accident and survived.

Also, the gap on a usb stick is pretty small and the pins reach quite deep, so unless you're dealing with M3's or smaller I doubt that the screws will end up in there.

Yeah, I mostly deal in m3 screws for my projects which, I know from experience, do get caught in type-A plugs.

Fair enough. For what it's worth, the Corsair GTX has a cap that stays on fairly well.

This is an awesome analysis. I need to make a plug for my favorite, the Kingston FCR-ML3C. Its a micro metal usbc /usbA micro SD card reader. I upgrade my Samsung micro SD in it every once in awhile for speed and space upgrades. It sits lovely on my ID badge (works on Keychain too) and it's a Swiss army type device that will work on whatever type of data port comes my way. Have used it for years and simply love it.

I love the documentation.

Just... Why is it shaped like that? What possessed Samsung to make that design..?

It will stick up at an odd angle in a desk or in a bag. Easy to find.

It also provides a raised grip for removing, but they could do both of those without THAT shape. Even rotating the hole 90 degrees would make it a little better on the key ring and still keep those marginal benefits.

I think all of that could be aided by putting the stick on a small ring, and then putting that ring on your larger key ring. Might help it not stick out as much

It's wild just how slow most thumb drives benchmark even with recent models, the Samsung Bar at 36MB/s is just ridiculous, that's 30 minutes of waiting to fill it up entirely!

A basic V30 microSD card is at least that fast!

I have a stick dangeling on my keychain too, also in heavy use. But due to my Mac-Friends i need one with usb-c. So I settled for this: 81gqM6ouEcL.SL1500-247235771 The hinge is still holding on since almost a year. Also have two of those: sandisk_ultra_dual_usb_c_flash_drive_3-1009136228 But they seem a lot cheaper, flimsier and I probably got ripped off by a dropshipper.

Havent benchmarked them, if anyone knows of a comparison as good as this one for "dual" usb sticks, let me know!

I just picked up a 2 pack of 128GB of that top one for $20 at Costco, seems decent so far

I have the bottom one and it's a piece of crap. The clip is weaker then the friction required to insert the stick into the USB slot - it just slides back into the body. And it overheats as hell.

Love the thorough report. I also have an Ole reliable from circa 2008. Never fails, slow as balls.

Thanks for the post! I'd be interested in having a similar analysis but with USB c's - I already have most my devices use it and I think it would be a nice future proofing. Then again for PC's specifically I think I would go with your recommendation as well. Also have a Kingston data traveler from way back and it's still slow and kickin. Thanks!

Have you come across a USB c only key that would be compact? Like just a stick the width of the USB c port

I'd love one with both USB-C and USB-A, or perhaps a USB-A adapter that stays snugly attached but can be removed.

There are many with both C and A!

Example.

https://www.kingston.com/en/usb-flash-drives/datatraveler-microduo-3c-g3

Anything that would work on a keychain? The ports would need some kind of protection.

Well body is metal and the c port has a cap. Should be find as long as you don't sit on it in your back pocket. There might be sturdier ones, I haven't really searched long

I was talking about a lack of a loop or something to connect to the rest of my keys. I don't use USB devices that often, so I need it to be attached to something or I'll just lose it.

Look closely, there is a hole middle of the body

Huh, for some reason that loop isn't visible at all on the product page, but it is visible on a few Amazon review videos.

Looks cool, I might just get one. :)

I also have a DTSE9 and it's been on my keychain for at least 10 years now :D

Recently I have just gotten 2 nvme ssd enclosures and have been very happily using them for the super quick image writes. I just checked if there's some compact 2230 enclosures and some of those even have keychain attachment points.. they definitely are a bit bulky for a keychain but I'd argue they still are an option and will look similar to a keyfob :)

Any noticeable durability issues? Had my Samsung stick die completely just outside of warranty window....

I just got it, so I couldn't say. Someone else in these comments said theirs failed too.

I have 2, a 32gb and a 64gb, that I've had for over 6 years I think. Not sure exactly how long since I've had them for a long time - since before I met my wife, so maybe I got them when they first came out?

That Kingston DataTraveller I have as well and it's my ol' reliable from at least 9 years ago. For some reason PCs put up a fuss with recognizing other people's USBs at boot, I've never once had an issue with the Kingston.

It is true that it is slower but for a live distro, install and troubleshoot disk it does the job perfectly fine.

For me I found that the lack of responsiveness when in the booted environment was problematic. I use stuff like GParted on Linux bootable USBs to manage partitions too.

Writing a new image to the stick was also really slow.

New sticks are £10 for 64GB, so I recommend giving one of the above a try and see if you get a better experience!

I've had DataTraveller sticks since the late 90s/early 00s. Never given me a problem.

I bought two of these a few years ago and they are really reliable. USB 2.0 so they are slow as shit, but I still use them to install linux.

I replaced my old DataTraveler with a Samsung Bar and the angled hole isn't really that noticeable to me other than aesthetically being annoying to look at. I was initially concerned about that but it was the only all metal USB drive they had at Microcenter so I bit the bullet. I actually carried it around for like 2 weeks in my pocket and forgot about it until I noticed it was on there when I got my keys out at one point.

Great post OP. I love this kind of thing.

Good review, it reminds me of a Project Farm video. That guy reviews things very much from a practical use standpoint.

Awesome work, thankyou for taking the time to do this.

I too love a metal USB stick for the keychain, and my old DTSE9 could do with a refresh!

I've got a 128GB Kingston DTSE9G2 and it has served me very well for close to a decade. Shit's built like a tank and has sustained a lot of abuse being packed in my pocket with all the keys. Even survived a bike accident where I landed on the pocket (the pain was intolerable though...)

did any of them do the write fast for 5 seconds, then freeze for 10 seconds shit? that's the worst when a pendrive does that, and I've experienced that with multiple drives

I remember having that problem with the original Kingston.

Because I didn't manually copy large files, I couldn't say.

If there's any you'd like me to test this for (except the Samsung Bar, because I've given it away) I can do so.

That's because your PC is faster than the drive. You fill the cache quickly, then wait while it writes to flash. It's not a big deal.

I really wish Kingston made their latest datatraveler drive in all-metal. The USB C one seems to just be an Nvme drive with a USB C port.

beautiful post, thank you!! I've been using the same traveling USB for ages at this point and will probably upgrade soon, this research is super useful

The Samsung bar needs to be on the sides of a key ring so it falls flatter.

Made me stop bringing it. I wear my keys on a Climbing Carabiner and if it sits right it is perfect. But fuck off if it doesn't, it's pure anger in metal usb stick form.

There was a keychain Multitool, I think it was called the shard, and it had a hobby knife blade on it that could open in your pocket. People were getting stabbed in the leg or hand reaching their hand in their pocket.

That is pure chaotic hatred in keychain form.

For durability and smallest features, a metal unibody types that don't have seams are great.

For performance, I opt to have an nvme SATA enclosure that is USB 3.1 capable. Copying 15 GB in a minute or 2 is so satisfying. Plus my god being able to easily change the nvme SATA drive on the fly if needed and it being able to go up to a few TB without loss of performance is just to good

For price, nothing beats free. Just don't expect much more than what you get.

Does anybody know neat USB organizers that fit in your pocket?

I don't even know what that is!

Maybe this? I'm interested in the use-case, because if you want multiple USB drives, you would probably do better with a single portable SSD with higher capacity.

Can you show how you filed down the samsung bar?

The sharp parts were on the side you plug into the computer, all the way around the lip but especially the corners.

I used a large steel file, but a smaller diamond file would work too I'm sure.

Simply rub the corners at a 45 degree angle with the file until it no longer hurts to touch. Go slowly and gently so you don't bend it.

I have a metal dual USB A & C microSD card reader on my keychain. It lets me swap out cards easily, and should it ever be damaged, the chances are slimmer that the tiny microSD will be destroyed.

This is awesome. I think I need to get a Corsair. And looks like I can probably use it for self defense too.

It's about the size of an adult index finger, if that helps.

Corsair GTX hand for size

that thing looks like a pip boy. i don't want to carry any of the others you tested into battle

Why only usb-a?.. Is that all that's on offer? Surely a Usb-c would be faster and smaller?

Still a ton of devices with no c port. Even if op went that route they'd likely have to keep an adapter around too. I recently picked up a hybrid A/C drive. Using the C port side always feels like it's gonna just snap off lol.

My company uses SFF PCs with only a single front USB-C port and plugs a 2/4 port serial adapter into it for all locations. If everyone around it is careful, fine. But I can absolutely attest that USB-A is much more sturdy and secure, at the cost of slightly larger form factor...

Much appreciated!

With no clear winner in terms of performance, which one do you think has the most durable material? I have been using a Corsair Voyager mini for years, which I think has an aluminum shell, and it very quickly bent inward on the side that doesn’t have the contacts, usually I need to put a key or some other metal thing into the USB slot of the drive to re-flatten it before it can be plugged in.

Hard to say. None of them flex much under pressure, but I don't really want to do a durability test...

The Sandisk one got me filesystem corruption, since it's always super hot (especially in notebook) even in idle, to the point the controller shuts down for a second and the again on for a few. Put a tiny heatsink on it and it works since (although goofy).

Very cool! Thanks for sharing.

Just a thought on random write: If you are using swap/page files, it may have more of an impact. Or if you are updating the system in place.
I have no clue whether updating by flashing a new system image would be treated as sequential or extracted randomly as individual files.

When you boot from a USB, it's usually read-only, so I figured random writes wouldn't be super important.

I'm hoping that flashing a new image is mostly sequential, but I might do a quick test with Rufus if you're interested.

Out of curiosity, could the Samsung and Sandisk not have been flipped over on the ring to fit at a better angle? I realize they'll run around the ring and be at the worse angle in your pocket from time to time but, I guess I'm just wondering how you made the measurement. The Samsung bar in the picture is at a solid 90 degrees to the GTX, which would be annoying as hell if the GTX was replaced by a set of keys lol

Like you say, it will just happen on the other side as I don't normally hang them from a chain. I'd rather pick something that hangs nicely from the start.

Every metal one I ever had has at somepoint had the board fall out of the housing and get lost. They never survive the keyring.

I had that happen with the Kingston at one point in its life. Can't remember how it happened.

I was lucky and spotted it before I lost it. I super-glued it back in and it works fine!

Give my GTX. It’s even survived going through the washing machine lol

I have a few Kingston DTEG2. They all perform like the Crucial and the Samsung.

I've tried many SanDisk since that's all they sell in the brick and mortar stores near me and they're all trash.

I have had the Sandisk Ultra Luxe 512GB version for a few years now with Ventoy on it and have been very pleased with it. I keep a cheap USB-C to USB-A attached to it and that lets me use it with my phone or on any computer.

This looks awesome. Posting so I can read it later - the Mbin mobile site absolutely butchers your table, and I feel like submitting a bug report~

Yeah I noticed on my app too. Using Markdown syntax but the table is quite wide so it's hard to fit on a mobile screen. I've found that rotating my phone to landscape helps, at least on my app.

Dude, if you've been using your last one for 12 years then you really really don't care about any of these stats/benchmarks

[edit] I retract my comment

Caring about these bench marks is how you find one to last another 12 years.

If he’s going to use the next one for 12 years he definitely cares about picking a good one.