Review: Corsair Voyager 4GB USB Key
The other day I was lucky enough to get my hands on a Corsair Voyager 4GB USB key courtesy of my employer, so I thought I’d do a review of the device.
Right off the bat it was quite obvious that this was one tough USB key. The whole thing is rubber coated, meaning that you don’t have to panic if you happen to drop the thing. Working in the environment that I do is a definite plus.
Flash Voyager 4GB Key
This is a USB 2.0 key, but it’s also backward compatible with any USB 1.1 ports. If you wanted to use it with Windows Vista’s ReadyBoost, this key would work just fine. It’s also available in 4, 8, 16 or 32GB configurations, and comes with a lanyard and a USB extension cable. The actual reported capacity of the drive in XP SP3 is 3.74 GB.
In a performance test against my no-name 4GB USB key, I was able to copy a 1.1 GB folder (572 files) to the Corsair in 5 minutes and 15 seconds. The generic key was 6 minutes and 49 seconds for the same folder. Quite a significant difference. Using HDTach (thanks, Tyler), I ran a basic test, and found the transfer rate to be around 6 MB/s for the generic, but more than 5 times that for the Corsair. Guess which key I’m happier with?
If you’re looking for a good rugged USB key, you’d be hard pressed to top this statement from the Corsair site: "The Flash Voyager has been shown laundered, baked, frozen, boiled, dropped, and even run over by a SUV in many third party reviews. After all the punishment it receives, the drive continues to work."
Indeed. This is one tough key.
Disclosure: This is a completely independent review of the Corsair Voyager. The drive was not supplied by Corsair for purposes of review. I was just impressed with the device enough to want to do a review of it.