Kingston DataTraveler Max - 256GB - USB 3.2 Gen 2 - Flash Drive Type-A - Up to 1,000MB/s Read, 900MB/s Write

I bought this USB-A drive to to be able to fully test USB 3.x cable bandwidth and needed to make sure that the drive was as fast as advertised. This is where it is important to know which ports on your PC are which and what the fastest ports are. I have a Gigabyte X570 motherboard with a variety of different USB ports, some on the rear I/O shield and some exposed on the front panel via internal USB3 headers and more with an aftermarket USB/card reader in a 5.25" drive bay but using USB3.2Gen1 header so limited to 5GB/s *ALL* of my front USB 3.0 ports are 3.2Gen1 meaning they max out at 5Gb/s or around 640MB/s - well short of the advertised max speed of this drive. In practice, even connected directly to the rear USB3.2Gen1 ports, the max bandwidth is less than the theoretical maximum and I got around 446MB/s sequential reads and 403MB/s sequential writes on the Gen1 ports. - see first screenshot. To fully get access to all the DataTraveller Max drive's speed potential you must use a USB3.2Gen2 or higher specified port. On my Gigabyte motherboard, these are coloured RED on the rear I/O shield and connected to that port, I got over 1020MB/s read and 879MB/s write speed. (see second screenshot) From early testing this is the fastest drive I have using USB and should allow me to test the cables I want to test. I agree with other reviewers that the slide mechanism is a bit faffy but disagree that a cap would have been preferable as I've seen caps get lost and the slide mechanism at least means it is permanently attached. For the price, this is definitely the fastest portable storage I own and I'm happy to recommend it.

I have had a few Kingston USB drives in the past and to be truthful, was never very happy with the write speed, read speed was Ok, so this was a surprise, on benchmark testing using USB 3.2 Gen1 port , read 420Mb/sec. write 409Mb/sec. In real life testing, witting to the Kingston Data Traveler Max from USB 3.2 Gen1 port, video file of 5.59Gb returned a speed of 331Mb/sec. and took 18 seconds, in all fairness this is very good, Went onto copy some work files 9.86Gb (12680 files) I knew this would be a lot slower, jumped around a bit but under 6 minuets at around 29Mb/sec. average, My old stick was around 8Mb/sec. so lots faster for small files from what I am use to. Got 5 stars from me

The speed are indeed as advertised (~1000MB/s Read and ~900MB/s Write) used through Thunderbolt4 connector (which is backward compatible to USB 3.2 Gen2, that was advertised on the product's page) — that's highly satisfying! Of course, the storage is again enormous for its money. Not particularly easy to use, though, mainly because my type C ports are located at the back of the laptop, and the drive in itself is long. On the other side, as noted in numerous reviews on amazon, which also resonated with my personal experience of use — the build is awful, like it seems an unreliable piece of plastic, especially with this sliding to-and-fro feature, that can break anytime even with light use. This is what happens with a lot of customers: the drive breaks after 1 year or 1.5 years of infrequent use. Also, it becomes really warm during use, as said by other users, too. So, generally this is exactly what I needed: cheep and cheerful device with high speeds and huge storage, although not the best build. Still, for future I will be investing more money in reliability of a flash drive with my vital data (never use only one storage for all your important information).

This is a very good USB if you have a lot of photos or file and you just want quick transfer speeds this USB does the job it is easy to use all while being really small the security is good as well meaning you can protect what’s important but it does get a little hot when transferring a lot of files.

At speeds like that shown on the screenshot, I can live with the stick being a bit long. tested files at 1Gb upto 5GB all with +780 MB/s writes and +950 MB/s reads this was attached to a 2019 iMac via the 40GB/s thunderbolt port. Feels well made and has a understated styling. You get a reassuring click when pushing the USB-C connector all the way out. There is a slot to fit a substantial lanyard if needed. When not in use the connector can be pushed back and protected from damage. The 256GB is a nice size and doesn't unduly compromise space vs price. Only problem now is, all my other USB sticks are going to be way to slow for me lol! Definitely a worthwhile purchase

it just died after slightly less than a year, with infrequent use during that time. Very disappointing from a known brand like this.

Amazing. Very fast. If copying 10s of GBs, could become a bit slow. Better than most usbs.

Write speed drops to 76 Megabytes per second. 215mins to fill. Chonky. USB-A. Looks cheap! usable capacity in ntfs is 953GiB = 1024,207,089,664 bytes. Took 3h35m to fill with 1GB files. Initial write speed was 700MBytes per second. This dropped under 98MB/s after 42mins; 82M/s after 160min; 76M/s by end. However, it never hung. Recognised in my LG Oled TV ( media playback ) . I bought mine 'used' & with a £5 extra discount coupon so forgive it a bit on those grounds. It is not a 'lemon' but is clunky & only has USB-A. My review got bounced when I recommended alternatives but there are several reliable tiny & cheap models from the big names.