USB Drives come in all shapes and sizes, most are just a stick with a removable cap, while you can find novelty ones as well, and then some are actually sort of useful. All USB drives though are useful in that they help you transport your stuff to and from places, but not all are of equal performance.
Today for review I’ve got the Verbatim Tuff-Clip 8GB USB drive. This USB drive resembles a carabineer style clip that you can attach to most anything. The drive comes with software to create two partitions as well, one secure and one public so you can hide any important data so it can’t be accessed without a password. I’ve put it up against a few other 8gb USB drives I’ve got on hand for comparison and the Tuff-Clip performs well actually..
Specifications:
Looking for a portable USB drive that’s tough enough for backpacks or key rings? Check out the new Verbatim TUFF-CLIP USB Drive. This rugged flash drive clips onto backpacks, belt loops or even notebooks. With an easy slider that protects the USB connector, the TUFF-CLIP USB drive is super durable and great for music, videos, school projects or photos. It also offers a password security feature that ensures you’re the only one who can access your important information. This drive is enhanced for Windows ReadyBoost for Windows 7 and Vista users. With the Verbatim TUFF-CLIP USB drive, just clip and carry your files with you!
Features & Benefits:
* Portable USB drive with rugged clip for backpacks or key rings
* Durable easy slider protects USB connector
* Password security feature for privacy protection
* Enhanced for Windows ReadyBoost
* Works with all USB connections
* Compatible with Windows 7, Vista, XP or 2000, Mac OS 9.x or higher, Linux kernel 2.6x or higher
* Available in either 4GB or 8GB
Unboxing:
The Tuff-Clip comes packaged in everyone’s favorite sealed plastic clamshell.
It’s black in color and features a spring clip on the back, the USB connector slide out of the bottom for access. It is made of plastic so it’s lightweight but I’m not too sure about using a plastic clip..
Here’s a size comparison for you with a quarter and my Jawbone2 headset for scale:
Installation, Performance, Comparison
There is a blue LED in the Tuff-Clip that blinks to indicate activity:
I’m comparing the Tuff-Clip to a few other 8GB capacity flash drives. The Super Talent Pico Gold, Corsair Flash Voyager Mini and the ATP Touchdrive Camo.
Here’s the tests using ATTO Disk Benchmark first:
As you can see they all have rather low write speeds, but the read speeds are decent.
For the testing I used DiskBench and two types and sizes of files. One is a 349MB .AVI video file, while the other is a 3GB .ISO file so we can see how they all handle large and small file transfers.
First up I’ve got two graphs for you with testing of the smaller .AVI file. The first graph is the times in seconds it takes to Copy To and Copy From the drives. Lower is better of course, and the graph is ordered by the Copy To or write speed.
As you can see the Verbatim has the fastest time for the Copy To test, but falls a bit behind in the Copy From test.
Here’s a chart showing the actual Transfer Rates in MB/s for the above test:
Next up is the same tests using the larger 3gb .ISO file:
Again the Verbatim Tuff-Clip has the best Copy To or Write speed, and the Copy From speeds are all similar between the drives. We can see they each handle the larger file differently than they do the smaller files.
And finally here’s the Transfer Rates for the above test:
Conclusion:
The Verbatim Tuff-Clip has the fastest write speed of those I tested and overall it’s not a bad choice for a thumb drive. The little clip can be useful to attach to your bag, or even your keys so you’ll always have storage available to you.
I can say though that I’ve seen much faster USB drives than this. the write speeds are fairly slow really.
The idea of it being plastic is ok I guess, but I’m not sure about the plastic clip, I don’t think I’d trust it for any type of rough usage…
Pros:
+Useful clip for keys or whatever
+Fastest write speed of those tested
+Fairly fast read speed
Cons:
-Slow write speeds
-Made of plastic
Ratings
Overall: 4 out of 5
Performance:4 out of 5
Aesthetic: 5 out of 5
Build Quality:4 out of 5
I would like to thank Verbatim for the opportunity to review the Tuff-Clip and for their support of Bona Fide Reviews.
