OCZ Mini-Kart is tiny and looks fragile
by - Written: Dec 24 '06 (Updated Dec 25 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Small Size
Cons: Small size mean compromises
The Bottom Line: Overall a good product although not the speediest but at this time, definitely the smallest.
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| yusakugo's Full Review: OCZ Mini-Kart (2 GB) (OCZUSBM2GB) |
My friend got this drive since she thought it was cute and extremely pocketable. The Mini-Kart is tiny compared to other USB flash drives. Given the strong reputation of OCZ in the computer memory market, I expected a high quality and performance orientated drive that wouldn't be too far off from OCZ's Rally2 USB drives.
Short Take
The Mini-Kart strongest feature is the size of the drive. You get up to 2GB (depending on the model) of storage and a decently sturdy flash drive with a good warranty of 3 years. The price is pretty decent too at $42 at newegg.com before mail-in rebates (often up to $10 back in mail-in rebates.
The downsides of the Mini-kart is the high access times, the drive size may be too small, and unprotected USB connector. Admittedly, these may be considered relatively minor problems but that is going to depend on the buyer.
Specs
If you put two pennies side by side, that would give you the approximate size of the Mini-kart. I'm not joking here... this drive really is that small. The official dimensions are 43x19x2.8 mm. You barely feel the weight of this drive... the pennies are actually heavier than the drive.
There is no cap... the only other accessory is a lanyard key ring and a translucent white clamshell case similar to that used for flash memory cards. The Mini-Kart and the lanyard fit into the clamshell case. There is nothing else in the package. A nice touch is that the Mini-Kart was not packed in a blister pack but a soft plastic packaging that is pretty easy to open.
The Mini-Kart thickness is pretty much half of a USB port. This also means that the USB connector isn't what you're used to with other devices and USB cables. Like the Sandisk Ultra II SD Plus card, you can insert the Mini-Kart into your USB port the wrong way. This doesn't mean that you can damage the drive per se but that is something to watch if you can't access your drive. You should make sure that the metal connector strips are facing each other when inserting the drive.
Durability
The device has survived in a bag with heavy books, pockets full of keys, and kids.
Performance
This is not listed as a performance drive but it performs fairly well. The average read speed is about 10 MB/sec and the write speed around 7 MB/sec. The access time is surprisingly high hovering anywhere from 60ms to 70ms. The access time can be important especially if you plan on putting many files on the drive for constant usage. In reality, this only amounts to a few extra seconds of waiting.
Although this is a 2GB drive, you get about 1.88 GB for use.
350 MB of video files took about 4-5 minutes to transfer to the Mini-Kart.
Final Words
An overall excellent flash drive for most people although the size of the drive may make you fearful of losing it. The drive is certainly sturdy to survive most physical punishment although I do worry about the actual metal connectors. It is nowhere near as fast as many drives in the market today but the size makes up for it.
Recommended:
Yes
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