Introduction

I would like to thank Patriot Memory for supplying the review sample. Patriot produces high-performance desktop and laptop memory, as well as a full range of flash memory cards, solid-state drives, and flash drives.

We have the pleasure of reviewing their Xporter Magnum flash drive today. The Xporter Magnum is Patriot's top-of-the-line flash drive built for large capacity and high transfer speeds:


From the manufacturer:

• Hi Speed USB 2.0 Compatible (backwards compatible to USB 1.1)
• Easy plug and play functionality
• Portable and lightweight (19.5 grams)
• Driverless in Windows ME/2K/XP/Vista, Mac OS 9.x, OS X Linux with USB storage support
• Certified for Windows Vista
• Lifetime Warranty

Packaging

Patriot ships the Xporter Magnum in a blister pack revealing the flash drive against a very eye-catching background. The packaging clearly shows the flash drive’s capacity of 64 GB, an “Enhanced for Vista ReadyBoost” logo, and gives a read speed rating of 210x, which translates to just over 31.5 MB/s. We will later see if it lives up to that claim. The back of the packaging shows the flash drive's specifications, as well as a chart comparing the Xporter Magnum’s transfer rate to a 50x speed rated flash drive.

Contents

Patriot includes a lanyard as well as a USB port extension cable. The extension cable is useful because many computers have side-by-side USB ports, which the Xporter Magnum would block if plugged directly into the port. The extension eliminates this problem, and it is great to see that Patriot realized this problem, and included the cable.