PQI U230 Traveling Disc USB 2.0 USB Flash Drive (4 GB) (BB5340310111)

Pros: cheap
Cons: SLOW, SLOW, SLOW

I purchased the PQI U230 at Frys electronics today for $40 (after rebate). I was thrilled with the prospect of quadrupling the size of my existing USB drive (Lexar 1GB). After inserting into my Windows XP Pro system the OS promptly recognized the device and installed it as a new drive letter.

Unfortunately, this is where the drive started to disappoint me. Based on my tests it this drive was about 20X slower than my Lexar! It was taking almost 2 hrs to transfer my 1 GB of data! I double checked and it does recognize the device as USB 2.0 compliant. The PQI website says 7MB/sec but I saw more like 7KB/sec.

I will be returning this product tommorow.

Pros: Works fine so far.
Cons: Quite slow. Cap will wear out quickly.

This is my fourth USB flash drive and I'm not impressed but then I didn't pay much for it either. It is the slowest of the lot. Just as small as my other 64MB, 256MB and 1GB drives and easily fits in my pocket for daily use.