For today’s review we will look at the DataTraveler 160 USB drive. At the recent Digital Experience show in New York City Kingston was kind enough to provide us a review sample.
Designed as budget USB drives they come in four capacities – 4GB, 8GB, 16GB and 32GB. It’s amazing to think my first USB drive weighed in at a hefty 8 MB and cost more than the 8GB DataTraveler 160 model; God Bless Moore’s Law and competitive pricing.
They were created to be stylish, versatile and durable. The capless retractable design is a fairly new one for Kingston designed USB drives. These drives can work with all the major operating systems right out of the box.
Info:
DataTraveler 160 16GB
Store, carry and transfer your photos, music, videos, files and more with Kingston’s DataTraveler USB Flash drives. With a wide range of features, models and capacities, there’s a DataTraveler that matches your needs.
A day in the life of a DataTraveler USB drive and its owner shows how versatile these drives are. Use them at work, school, home, with friends – anywhere you go.
Sleek Portable Storage
Kingston’s DataTraveler 160 USB Flash drive combines functionality with a capless design that features a chrome and rubber coating for a premium look. The rubberized thumb grip makes it the easiest-to-use retractable USB Flash drive on the market. The retractable case protects the connector, providing durability and convenience.
With capacities up to 32GB, DT160 is ideal for your important documents, music, video clips and favorite photos that can be stored and retrieved in a flash. It’s ideal for anyone on the go who needs a sleek drive to hold all their data.
DataTraveler 160 is backed by legendary Kingston reliability plus a five-year warranty and 24/7 technical support.
Kingston DataTraveler 160 Part Numbers:
DT160/16GB
Features/Specifications:
Capacities* — 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, 32GB
Speed — data transfer rates of up to 10MB/sec. read and 5MB/sec. write
Dimensions — 2.84" x 0.54" x .0.90" (72.10mm x 13.64mm x 22.83mm)
Operating Temperature — 32° to 140° F (0° to 60° C)
Storage Temperature — -4° to 185° F (-20° to 85° C)
Simple — just plug into a USB port
Practical — capless design, retractable USB casing
Guaranteed — five-year warranty
What’ in the Box?
The DataTraveler 160 arrives in a plastic clamshell package with a cardboard information card behind the drive.
Inside the package is the DataTraveler 160 and a lanyard for attaching the drive to a key ring. This is pretty typical Kingston USB drive packaging – simple and compact. For this review we were provided with the 16GB DataTraveler 160 model. According to David Leong the representative for Kingston, the DataTraveler 160 is designed for style and provides a different look from other Kingston USB drives.
Gone is the USB cap that most people including myself will invariably lose. The drive is now a slide out thumb model, keeping the USB tip retracted when not in use. One drawback to this style is that the connector can still be exposed to dirt from the outside world.
The drive is composed of plastic and partially covered with a rubbery material. It measures 2.84" x 0.54" x .0.90" and has data transfer rates of up to 5MB/sec. when writing and 10MB/sec. read speeds.
The front section of the device is silver/chrome plastic with the DT160 and Kingston logo printed in blue. At the very front tip is the USB opening. Beneath the Kingston logo is a LED that lights up when the drive is active.
In the middle we find a blue and silver thumb slider which extends and retracts the USB tip. Towards the back of the device is the blue rubbery material for grip-ability; here we find the drive capacity printed as well.
Flipping over the DataTraveler 160 we see the Kingston name printed on the underside of the drive.
The drive is light and very "plasticy" in feel. It does not feel cheap or flimsy but I am used to most USB drives having some metal component to their housing.
Usage:
Plugging in the drive you will realize that your actual capacity is 14.8 GB instead of 16 GB thanks to the 1GB=1024MB conversion factor. Kingston usually has some sort of software installed on their USB drives but the DataTraveler 160 comes empty.
One immediate concern I have with the drive is when the USB slides out there is no lock to keep it from going back into its casing thus making the drive want to push back into its shell when plugging into the USB connection on my computer.
I tested the DataTraveler 160 using the ATTO Disk Benchmark. As you can see the numbers are not blazing fast but are in line with what Kingston advertises.
Here is the DataTraveler 160 results from SiSoftware Sandra 2009 Removable Storage Benchmark. Once again the numbers will not blow anyone away but are on par with the competition.
To test real world transfer speeds I used DiskBench getting 11.45 MB/s transfer speeds with the Copy File Bench.
Overall the Kingston DataTraveler 160 is a nice inexpensive USB drive for those who need to move files between work, school or anywhere.
The five year warranty is another nice addition; hopefully in five years you’ll probably be carrying around an 8 TB thumb drive.
Conclusion:
Kingston is one of those companies that make reliable storage products. The DataTraveler 160 continues the trend offering a budget priced USB drive that is fairly stylish with its chrome/rubber appearance.
It is not blazing fast nor turtle slow either. It does not come with any encryption or backup software so if that is something you require then this may not be the right drive for you. But if you are looking for a capacious drive and are on a budget then the DataTraveler 160 may be the right USB drive for you.
| PROS | CONS |
| +Affordable +No cap to lose +Light weight +Comes in several capacities |
-USB contacts are exposed to outside environment such as dust -Thumb slider pushes back when plugging drive in PC |
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Thanks for the review. I like the retractable concept, but hadn’t thought of the fact that it doesn’t keep the dirt out. More protection than a lost cap though! Also looks like it might be a tight fit in an older laptop where the USB ports are stacked.