Best USB 3.0 Flash Drives for Portable Backup & File Transfer
We put eight 128GB USB 3.0 drives from Corsair, Kingston, Samsung and Sandisk to test. These drives are designed to be great at sequential read and write - essential for portable backups and large file transfers.
January 2016 Ian Chiu
The purpose of this article is to find out which flash drive is best for file transfers and portable backup. We’re also looking for a drive that offers the best bang for your buck. For this reason, sequential performance, build and price inherently became our main focuses during our evaluations.
In this four drive comparison, Corsair Flash Voyager GS and Kingston HyperX Savage have a distinct performance advantage in large file copying. Both the Lexar JumpDrive P20 and Sandisk Extreme PRO 3.0 carry a relatively low price per gigabyte, yet the latter has the edge over rivals in small file writes.
Feature Comparison
 CorsairFlash Voyager GS |  CorsairFlash Voyager GTX |  KingstonHyperX Savage |  KingstonDT Elite G2 |  SamsungBar |  SamsungBar Plus |  SandiskExtreme PRO |  SandiskExtreme Go |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UASP? | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Movie Read: (10GB MP4) | 365.98MB/s | 383.94MB/s | 354.52MB/s | 251.03MB/s | 145.31MB/s | 286.44MB/s | 283.76MB/s | 182.98MB/s |
| Movie Write: (10GB MP4) | 254.74MB/s | 129.19MB/s | 270.33MB/s | 98.22MB/s | 32.78MB/s | 41.75MB/s | 224.88MB/s | 132.38MB/s |
| Photo Read: (5GB JPEGs) | 236.79MB/s | 239.17MB/s | 249.93MB/s | 154.55MB/s | 108.12MB/s | 177.72MB/s | 213.04MB/s | 131.91MB/s |
| Photo Write: (5GB JPEGs) | 95.96MB/s | 89.23MB/s | 98.88MB/s | 50.73MB/s | 24.82MB/s | 36.41MB/s | 121.81MB/s | 65.54MB/s |
| Storage: | 64 - 512GB | 128 - 256GB | 64 - 512GB | 32 - 128GB | 16 - 128GB | 32 - 256GB | 128 - 256GB | 64 - 128GB |
| Dimensions: | 78 x 26.4 x 10.8mm | 78 x 26.4 x 10.8mm | 76.3 x 23.5 x 12mm | 59.4 x 19 x 11mm | 40 x 12.2 x 10.92mm | 40.5 x 15 x 13mm | 71 x 21 x 11mm | 71 x 20 x 11mm |
| Color(s): | Black | Black | Black with red accents | Black | Gray, silver | Gray, silver | Black | Black |
| Interface(s): | USB 3.0 | USB 3.0 | USB 3.1 Gen 1 | USB 3.1 Gen 1 | USB 3.1 Gen 1 | USB 3.1 Gen 1 | USB 3.1 Gen 1 | USB 3.1 Gen. 1 |
| Retractable Connector? | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Build Material: | Zinc alloy | Zinc alloy | Rubberized plastic with aluminium support | Zinc alloy die-cast metal body with plastic cap | Metal unibody | Metal unibody | Plastic body with aluminum alloy | Plastic body with aluminum alloy |
| Software: | None | None | None | None | None | None | Drive encryption, data recovery | Drive encryption, data recovery |
| Jan 2015 | Jan 2015 | Nov 2015 | Sept 2017 | Sept 2015 | July 2018 | Jan 2017 | Jan 2017 | |
| Warranty: | 5 years | 5 years | 5 years | 5 years | 5 years | 5 years | Lifetime | Lifetime |
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Benchmark Analysis
Both Corsair Voyager GS’s and Kingston HyperX Savage’s impressive file read transfer speeds clearly put these drives ahead of the competition in our 10GB MP4 file benchmark. Overall, they were in neck and neck race, offering similar real-world performance. If exchanging multi-gigabyte files is part of your daily routine, these two will not disappoint.
Next test was involved copying a thousand JPEGs totalling 4.7GB. This benchmark confirmed the level of performance you can expect when transferring small files in bulk. Keep in mind manufacturers usually don’t advertise benchmark for small file-sized operations so your mileage may vary. So, for our test units, we saw the Voyager GS and HyperX Savage continued to lead by a fair margin except for write operations in which the Sandisk Extreme Pro surpassed its rivals by 25 percent in speed. Still, the Sandisk still lagged behind in read speeds but not by a whole lot.
And there’s also Corsair’s Flash Voyager GTX, which we didn’t directly compare with other drives in this round-up. The reason was that the drive has received a long-needed update to its internals and as of October 2018, we were still waiting for benchmark updates. It’s also worth noting that the GTX is USAP- and TRIM-enabled, meaning the drive is basically a SSD in thumb drive form factor and should excel in IO intensive tasks. If you don’t mind the size (same as the GS), the Corsair’s GTX should stand head and shoulders above nearly all competitors.
Design & Build
Moving on to Kingston, its HyperX Savage 3.0 is more trendy in design with its metallic red X-shaped emblem, which also adds considerable strength to the drive’s rubberized body. We did end up wishing for a better cap. While it stayed on during our stress tests, it didn’t feel very secure. It could be only a matter of time before the cap slips off. The other Kingston – DataTraveler Elite G2 – also feels very solid, despite having a rather pedestrian design.
In contrast to Corsair and Kingston, Sandisk’s Extreme line-up goes with its the company’s tried-and-true USB slider mechanism. Both Extreme drives appear identical but the Go version is all in plastic whereas the Pro model’s outer shell is made with aluminium alloy to improve its durability. However, the Pro’s plastic slider might not be as pressure resistant as the chassis and could break if it’s stomped on.
Lastly, Samsung opts for a unibody for both of its BAR drives. Going for a minimalist design makes either model only one quarter the size of the Corsair’s Flash Voyager. The two low-profile drives are largely the same except the Plus model has brushed aluminum and a different keychain hole. Samsung didn’t provide a cap, leaving the USB plug exposed.
What Else You Need to Know
- Kingston HyperX Savage is being sold as USB 3.1 Gen. 1 but keep in mind that this mode technically defines a maximum transfer rate of 5Gbps under the new 3.1 specs. There’s actually nothing wrong with that. Just don’t be glamoured by that USB version number since there’s no speed improvement by “upgrading” to USB 3.1 Gen 1.
- Should you need a thumb drive that can also run Windows or large desktop applications (e.g. games) efficiently, you need something like the Corsair Flash Voyager GTX that supports TRIM and UASP to maximum SSD optimizations and performance. The other drives still work great as supplemental storage for production system’s high-speed SSDs.
- While conventional wisdom suggests you buy the fastest drive available, it’s best to pick one that matches the speed of system’s primary drive. Otherwise, your primary drive would just become the bottleneck to the flash drive.
- If you value smaller drive dimension over speed, mini USB drives are another category of flash drives that doubles as a semi-permanent storage for your laptops. They are fact an effortless and a much more elegant way to expand space.
- For data exchange between a USB-C and legacy USB PCs, dual-headed flash drives are just what you need but speeds don’t match the ones featured here.
Which One to Choose?
We’ve picked four 128GB flagship USB 3.0 drives from first-tier manufacturers for this round-up. While more will be included in coming months, we felt this is quite representative of what you can expect on the market (as of early 2016).
Performance-minded users have a choice between Corsair Flash Voyager GS and Kingston HyperX Savage 3.0. Both are really good at what they do: sequential read and write. They are also the only models to offer capacity up to 512GB among the tested drives.
Sandisk Extreme PRO 3.0 excels at random read and write, but this particular area wasn’t what we were examining. And the Lexar JumpDrive P20 from a cost standpoint is more appealing to those who don’t need fastest of everything. In the end, it all comes down to whether the time saved is worth the cost.