SanDisk Cruzer Titanium Flash Drive Review

Titanium Design
Maintaining the standards set by the original, the new Cruzer Titanium makes it impossible to lose the cap, because there isn't one. Instead, the USB connector is protected by a retractable white slider that only moves when a small amount pressure is applied. The slider is recessed into the casing of the flash drive, so that while it's easily accessible to the thumb, it cannot move accidentally when thrown into a bag. The also doubles as an activity LED, that shines a bright blue when connected to the computer and flashes when data is being transferred.

The smooth casing, developed by Liquid Metal is very elegant, casting a nice speckled reflection reminiscent of a fine set of mechanics tools. Towards the back is a small loop for attaching a lanyard, and two grooves for attaching the included belt clip. (The belt clip, while an interesting addition for a flash drive didn't have smooth edges and proved hard to clip onto even a pair of jeans, let alone a belt, so I never use it.) Back to the casing however, despite its being smooth and shiny, it's actually quite rugged. SanDisk goes so far to claim the drive can withstand over 2000 pounds of crush force. I don't happen to have that kind of machinery readily accessible, but I do have a car, so on to the juicy bit of the testing!

The Cruzer Titanium's retractable connector is one way to avoid more cap losing incidents.

This updated pic comparing the Cruzer Titanium (on the left) to the rest of the flash drives.

The Uncrushable
I drive a 92' Honda Accord sedan, with a curb weight of 2750 lbs. Loaded and spread out over 4 tires, that's a little over 700 pounds of crushing force the Cruzer Titanium 2GB drive was about to receive. To ensure that the test actually was worth anything, I first ran over a cheap freebie flash drive that was given out at a convention. After running it over several times with my car, I was amazed to see that it survived and the only damage done was a few scrapes and a bent USB connector, but the drive still functioned when plugging it into my laptop.

Not about to give up, I performed the test again, only this time wedging the drive on its side against my tire. This time, the drive wasn't so fortunate, emitting a loud POP as my tire backed over it, and then proceeded to run over the drive again and again. The remains were a bent PCB with the flash chip broken off, a USB connector snapped down the center, and several bits of plastic.

Now that the baseline has been set, it was time to do the same for the Cruzer Titanium. Propped under my tire in the same manner, the 2GB flash drive too made a loud POP after running it over. But I couldn't stop now, not after knowing that the thing was being dealt less than half of what it's rated for. Over and over I backed my car over it, before parking it directly on top of the drive and jumping on the suspension just for good measure. The result? The lanyard broke, but the Cruzer Titanium still worked, and you can see both tests in the video below. In fact, it worked so well that a sizable chunk of the pavement was actually broken free by the drive, which is what I rubbed off after pulling it out from under my car. Simply put, there's no denying that the new Cruzer flash drive is incredibly well designed and meets every one of my expectations.

U3 Software
Along with the new Cruzer Micros that were also released at 2006's CES, the new Cruzer Titanium is host to the U3 platform, allowing you to easily install and tote portable applications along with you on the road, without fear of leaving data behind on the host computer. Right off the bat I noticed that SanDisk has improved the appearance of the launch pad, giving it a clean brushed metal look.

On top of that, they've replaced the talking Oddcast intro with a presumably flash-based tutorial complete with mouse-overs that is much more effective. For U3 beginners, they've also included a list of recommended applications in addition to download links for the pre-installed applications, which is more or less okay although a few programs that accomplish the same task were listed.

What was surprising, convenient, and perhaps even risky since U3 does not always reinstall properly is the fact that SanDisk included the option to uninstall U3 directly into the launchpad, without the need to download any special utilities. If you absolutely hate U3, then by all means go for it, otherwise you probably don't want to touch this option.

Included applications are Skype, Avast! Antivirus, SignupShield Passwords, and CruzerSync by Dmailer. Skype is pretty much the same Skype as on the desktop including video, although the drop-down country menu is missing. The latest U3 version available is 2.0.14.85, which is what SanDisk preloaded.

For portable secure browsing, file and bookmark synchronization, SanDisk has provided their trusty CruzerSync, with support for portable Outlook and Outlook Express, as well as file and wallpaper synchronization, bookmark synchronization from either Internet Explorer or Firefox, and secure browsing within Internet Explorer. The portable emails is a nice feature especially since it's possible to use your calendars even if the full Outlook isn't installed on the host machine, and once the flash drive is plugged into the original computer you can transfer back your new correspondence. Unfortunately Thunderbird synchronization isn't supported.

Password management is also possible thanks to SignupShield Passwords, with native support for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Portable Firefox, and Portable Firefox for U3. While this functionality is already built into Firefox, SignupShield gives more control over deleting old passwords, filtering websites, and has support for disposable email addresses.

Finally, for keeping your flash drive and the computer it's connected to clean, Avast! Antivirus is bundled. If I had to take a guess, the reason SanDisk included it rather than the standard McAfee U3 Antivirus is because it has an active scanning engine that protects the flash drive constantly instead of just on-demand scanning and it presents the option to Repair, Quarantine, and Delete a file instead of just doing it all automatically, although the downside to this decision is unlike the McAfee antivirus present on a few other U3 drives, Avast! requires a subscription and will expire in two months without one. When it runs out, I guess there's always Portable ClamWin AV from PortableApps.com to fill the void.

Cruzer Speed
The Cruzer Titanium 2GB flash drive was able to achieve read and write speeds of 16MBps and 11.7MBps during the large 64MB file transfer test, actually exceeding SanDisk's own posted specifications of 15MBps and 9MBps. When transferring smaller 256KB files, the read speed dropped to 14.95MBps while the write speed took a more significant dive to 4.36MBps, still well within reason. As such, loading applications and sorting through emails in Portable Thunderbird was quite snappy. Posted below are the full Sandra benchmark results.

SiSoftware Sandra Benchmark

Verdict
Overall I was quite impressed with the new Cruzer Titanium. It's fast, tears through applications, has a smooth feeling and appearance to it, yet was easily able to withstand the crushing force of my car where another flash drive couldn't. SanDisk's choice of bundled applications was well picked and handy for synchronizing files and emails, although I would have liked to see at least a longer subscription for the bundled antivirus. Apart from the wishful thinking for a free file shredder there's really nothing I would change about the Cruzer Titanium, so I heartily recommend it for anyone looking for a speedy flash drive able to withstand the abuse of everyday life.