We thought of flash drives as being incredibly similar to each other and to a point we were right. After all, you get the same partitioning and security software, same storage options and same features from one drive to another. But there are quite a few aspects that differentiate one from the rest. These aspects include brand, warranty (although it is unnecessary with Flash drives, since the failure rate is unheard of), price and performance. It is natural for manufacturers to gain customers with their brand, assuming that it’s a trusted one. While brand, warranty and price are understandable, we were surprised to see different performance numbers from various drives.

Interestingly enough, just because two drives are USB 2.0 compliant and cost the same doesn’t mean they will perform alike. What’s baffling about the situation is the improvements, or the lack thereof, that result in performance differences. What is it, hardware wise, that manufacturers do to improve the performance of their flash drive? Could it be the drivers? In order for us to closely dissect this issue, we have contacted manufacturers for more information on this matter. After we get a good amount of information that we feel sufficiently explains the differences, we will do a follow-up article sometime in the future, hopefully soon.

Today we have another flash drive contender that makes the same promises like the rest of them, but as we know now, there’s a lot of difference between paper specifications and real world performance, even with these mere drives. It almost seems silly that we are giving such serious attention to flash drives, their architecture and performance, but it may be worthy to talk about for some of you. X-Micro is not a niche manufacturer, which doesn’t give them an edge over their products. They have expanded themselves into the portable audio player, flash drive, graphics cards and networking markets all at the same time. While it allows them to focus on a variety of products, companies usually have a tendency to produce mediocre products in all designated areas, since they typically have average amount of capital to invest into all their research and development facilities. Then again, X-Micro doesn’t promise earth-shattering performance either so maybe it justifies the results we might get from the drive.

X-Micro’s drive is definitely unique, as far as physical attributes are concerned. It is one of the best looking drives we have seen in the market. Due to this, it will please executive-like users who prefer sleek and professional looking peripherals than the ones who tend to grab attention with their vibrant looks. While the physical attributes may look promising, does it have what it takes to be the performance champion? Read on and find out…

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