LaCie XtremKey

LaCie XtremKey Review

We put LaCie's XtremKey USB flash drive through its paces in our review to see if it lives up to its "rugged" label. If your typical USB thumb drive amounts to a padlocked warehouse for data, LaCie’s XtremKey USB is the Fort Knox. Fortified to the hilt with protection that only a fraction of users will ever take advantage of, the XtremKey combines unrivalled protection for data with bleeding-edge transfer speeds, making it one of the most appealing thumb drives on the market today. Like a Hummer, tough doesn’t come cheap (the 16GB version sells for $80), but for those who see value in their data, the premium will be a petty one.Like its chief competitor, the Corsair Survivor, the XtremKey seals up data in a quite literal sense – within an impregnable metal shell. The USB key itself has been encased in 2mm-thick metal, and might pass for any other except for the beefy threads on its base, which screw into a one-piece, pipe-like shell. The entire assembly has been cast from Zamac, a super-tough alloy of zinc, aluminum, magnesium and copper that’s typically used in everything from zippers to plumbing fixtures, blenders and firearms.