SanDisk Cruzer Contour 4GB Flash Drive Review

Second, the amount of force required to move the drive sometimes works against you, pushing the drive farther than you intended and partially opening/closing the drive instead. When this happens while opening the drive, the metal door will actually remain ajar, slightly adding to the overall height of the USB plug. With the door exposed, the flash drive will still plug into your computer's ports, but it can be a snug fit.

Other issues also exist with the Cruzer Contour's design as well. The base of the drive is just wide enough to block adjacent USB ports, so you'll need to purchase a USB hub or extension cable when ports are limited. To maintain the smooth lines of the Contour, the lanyard hole - a staple feature found on every conventional flash drive manufactured until now - is missing. Instead, a leather pouch is supplied that features its own clip for a keychain, but this is also rather large and inconvenient. At least the leather removes the sound of clanging against keys that was present with the Cruzer Titanium.

U3 Software and Security
The Cruzer Contour comes pre-loaded with the U3 portable application platform, what started as a joint venture between SanDisk and (their now-subsidiary) M-Systems. In a nutshell, U3 allows you to take portable applications with you between computers, without ever needing to install software on any of the machines being used, without the need for administrator access. The way U3 does this is by acting as a virtual CD-ROM drive, thus taking advantage of Windows Autorun and automatically starting the Launchpad software - a system tray application that provides shortcuts to your files, portable applications, and a quick means to eject the drive.

A large variety of U3 compatible programs can be downloaded from U3 Download Center, many of which are free or have trial versions available. These programs range from antivirus solutions to instant messengers, games, photo editors, synchronization managers, secure web browsers and office replacements such as OpenOffice.org and ThinkFree Office. To see the full list, check out http://software.U3.com/.

Included on the Cruzer Contour are eight U3 applications, most of which are freeware or trial versions that can be downloaded for any U3 drive. These include the interactive U3 Launchpad tour, a one month trial of Avast! Antivirus, Skype for making Voice over IP calls, the SignupShield Passwords manager, Sudoku, and a trial version of Mahjong Towers. Unfortunately the vouchers for the 50 free songs from eMusic and 30 Skype minutes that were mentioned in the original press release from January did not make their way into the actual launch of the Contour.

The Cruzer exclusive applications bundled on the drive include HP Photosmart for light photo touchups, and CruzerSync by Dmailer, a $40 program when purchased separately for other U3 drives. CruzerSync is used for synchronizing files, IE and Firefox favorites, and Outlook Express or Outlook data (including contacts, emails, tasks and calendars) to the flash drive for use on any computer. All of these personal files are protected from prying eyes by using 128-bit AES encryption. The program also supports sending and receiving emails on the go, as well as initiating secure browsing sessions for Internet Explorer.

U3 offers some enhanced protection over traditional drives as well. By enabling the U3 Security, one can prevent the data portion of the drive from even being mounted by a computer unless the proper password is entered. The downside to this is that the locked drive will not be functional under Mac OS X or Linux. Although the U3 security is somewhat flawed since anyone can write a brute force cracker to continuously attempt guessing the password (no time delays or self-destruct features were implemented), the security is more robust compared to previous U3 versions, where I could simply reset the drive then run file recovery software to access the private data. Thankfully, attempting to do that on the Contour or even the Cruzer Titanium when using the latest Launchpad software is futile.

There are some valid criticisms to U3 however that have been (loudly) voiced on our forums and elsewhere. First, unless AutoRun is disabled on the host machines, the Launchpad will pop up every time the drive is inserted, which may be annoying when using the drive for simple file transfers between computers. Second, the U3 flash drive takes up two drive letters, which may conflict with some photo printing kiosks in stores. Third, trace files (that don't contain any personal data) are left on the computer even after the drive has been removed. Fourth, while U3 may be uninstalled on any Windows 2000, XP, or Vista computer, no removal utility was written for Mac or Linux, so you may need to ask a friend to help you uninstall the software.

Finally, U3 has been officially been marked as an End-Of-Life product, with its successor coming out from Microsoft and SanDisk in the second half of 2008. Third-party U3 software developers will be given a migration path to the new platform, but further details remain scarce at the moment. The new platform will most likely require updated hardware, including SanDisk's TrustedFlash technology.

Contour Performance
SanDisk officially rates the Cruzer Contour 4GB flash drive with read and write speeds of 25MB/s and 18MB/s respectively, a healthy boost from its Cruzer Titanium predecessor that I previously benchmarked at 16MB/s and 11.7MB/s using SiSoftware Sandra. Now taking the Contour through Sandra, I was able to hit speeds of 28.8MB/s and 17.1MB/s during the 64MB file test, a bit faster than the official read speeds, but about 1MB shy of the posted write speed. Smaller 512B file transfer speeds had huge performance gains, reaching read and write speeds of 16.9MB/s and 2.1MB/s whereas the older Cruzer Titanium couldn't even hit 1MB/s.

SiSoftware Sandra Benchmark

HDTach RW also showed promising results, averaging 26.4MB/s for the read test and 16MB/s for the write test, with a 30.9MB/s burst speed. Random access latency was a healthy 0.5ms.

For real life transfer speeds, it took 35 seconds to copy a 622MB disc image to the drive, which breaks down to 28.3MB/s. Copying the same file back to the computer took 22 seconds, approximately 17.7MB/s, the closest to the official 18MB/s write speed that I could get. While the Cruzer Contour doesn't have the fastest speeds I've seen on a portable flash drive (that title goes to Corsair's Flash Voyager GT), the speeds are fast enough that patience is no longer required.

Recap
Overall the Cruzer Contour is a so-so upgrade from the Cruzer Titanium as SanDisk's new flagship drive. Read and write speeds have made significant improvements over previous models, but the bulky, fingerprint-laden appearance of the drive and the difficulty experienced when opening the drive in one hand seems like a design step in the wrong direction. The (removable) U3 platform is a nice addition for those who like carrying their applications with them between computers, although since it's being phased out as soon as next year, I can't necessarily recommend it for anything more than password protecting the drive or the bundled Dmailer / CruzerSync application. To sum up SanDisk's latest offering in 3 words: form over function.

Where to Buy?

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Reviewed by R. Scott Clark, Consumer Technology Editor