I'd have to agree with the reviews. I bought one of these tiny SanDisk USB drives a year or two ago, and anytime I tried to transfer a large file, it would overheat, disappear from the computer, then reappear(as if it rebooted). This made it impossible to transfer large file to or from this drive.
Nice to see this at $25, overall the major brand flash drives (at least the desirable ones) still seem to be at least 20% more expensive than they were 6 mos. ago.
I resisted buying any of these due to the heat complaints but did buy a Sandisk Ultra Flair which seems like the same thing except stuffed into a longer metal casing. I mean benchmarks can be all over the place due to several variables but overall the benches and module inside looks the same.
My ultra flair doesn't get more than mildly warm, even during the initial transfer of an entire 120-odd GB of data to fill it, over USB3 of course. No instability at all, no speed decrease either.
On the other hand there are other reviews both before and after I bought mine, who still state that theirs gets too hot to hold. One review mentioned the possibility of a flaky USB power source and that makes as much sense to me as anything else, unless there are some counterfeits in the market.
I have this version and have no problem with the overheating. That said, I think it may have to do with how the USB port dissipates heat away from the drive. Some seem better at it than others.
The heating issue with this device has been resolved. The "2016" version gets no warmer than any other USB flash device. I have a 2014 128GB version that absolutely does get hot, but never so hot that the device has failed or the host computer has been affected. I have had 2 of the new version since early last year. They are loaded with movies that I watch when flying. They are fast and consistently work just fine.
^ There are 2017 reviews of overheating. It seems unlikely that people would take over a year to notice instead of right away, especially with those who reported drastic speed decreases, transfer hangs or device dropouts.
Then again sellers don't always mention whether they bought direct from or a 3rd party, I suppose it is possible that some reviewers bought old stock from a 3rd party but to have stock sitting around that long is rare for a commodity like flash that depreciates in value, at least until the last couple quarters when flash prices rose.
It would be funny if there was a 3rd party who worked at Sandisk's RMA center and when bad ones come in, they just collect a box full then resell them on instead of destroying them.
I bought one of this at 30 last year. I am using it on my Mac as a "semi-permanent" storage. I'd never observed any overheating issue. I just hope the 256GB or bigger versions coming out cheap soon...
Comments & Reviews (9)
I resisted buying any of these due to the heat complaints but did buy a Sandisk Ultra Flair which seems like the same thing except stuffed into a longer metal casing. I mean benchmarks can be all over the place due to several variables but overall the benches and module inside looks the same.
My ultra flair doesn't get more than mildly warm, even during the initial transfer of an entire 120-odd GB of data to fill it, over USB3 of course. No instability at all, no speed decrease either.
On the other hand there are other reviews both before and after I bought mine, who still state that theirs gets too hot to hold. One review mentioned the possibility of a flaky USB power source and that makes as much sense to me as anything else, unless there are some counterfeits in the market.
Then again sellers don't always mention whether they bought direct from or a 3rd party, I suppose it is possible that some reviewers bought old stock from a 3rd party but to have stock sitting around that long is rare for a commodity like flash that depreciates in value, at least until the last couple quarters when flash prices rose.
It would be funny if there was a 3rd party who worked at Sandisk's RMA center and when bad ones come in, they just collect a box full then resell them on instead of destroying them.
I now connect it via a USB extender the shroud acts as a heatsink.
Great device otherwise.
Thank you!