Kingston DataTraveler R500

Kingston DataTraveler R500

While USB flash drives are getting faster, sometimes what you really want is simply more capacity. The Kingston DataTraveler R500 ($200 street) may not be the fastest flash drive around, limited as it is to USB 2.0 instead of 3.0, but it is certainly one of the largest, offering a whopping 128GB of storage space. Wrap it all in a rugged, moisture-resistant enclosure, and you've got a storage device that's ready to go just about anywhere. The DataTraveler R500 is a high-capacity flash drive about the size of a Bic lighter. A two-toned black and orange color scheme makes it highly visible, and a tether point on the back of the drive makes it easy to attach to a key ring or lanyard. Measuring 0.5 by 0.9 by 2.8 inches (HWD), the R500 may crowd out neighboring ports, but it's still fairly slim and weighs only 1 ounce. The rubber housing provides protection against the hazards of everyday life, from dropping your keys on the floor to leaving your drive in your pocket as it goes through the laundry. The drive also has a slight tapering from front to back, and the back end is narrow enough that the cap can be slipped over the end when the drive is in use. The drive comes preformatted to FAT32, meaning that it is ready to go out of the box on virtually any system, whether it's a Windows, Mac, or Linux machine.