4GB USB stick stores a lot of stuff

The first time we saw this drive it had a massive 1GB and, since the memory prices have tumbled so much, we got the chance to play with one four times bigger. At the press time the company just announced 8GB key and doesn't plan to stop.

The device comes with a Corsair Voyager-branded lanyard and a USB cable. USB storage is super practical and you can never say no to more storage space. We like the fact that Voyager 4GB is still robust and looks indestructible. The only disadvantage is that you can lose that cap that cowers the USB connector. Far too many people know what I am talking about. The device works under Windows XP, 2000 and Vista, without any drives and under Linux as well, depending on the distribution, while you do need a driver for Windows 98 or Millennium.

The drive looks, is and feels indestructible and you can easily wash it in your pants and it should work without any problems, it might be a little cleaner and that's about it. The design is eye pleasing and you will love to show it to your friends as it looks cool.

Again, we copied the same folder with ninety files including subfolders, pictures and word files, the whole 16MB. It takes forty one seconds to copy these files from your computer to the USB. This is more half the speed we saw with the 1GB devices, but you have to live with it to get four times more space. That is the price you have to pay. Weirdly enough, it copies the same folder back to the PC in just three seconds. The Corsair Voyager 1GB will do the same job in just six seconds. It copies the files back in just two seconds. Amazing speed, isn't it?

It takes fifteen seconds to copy Justice for All from stick to comp and just four seconds to transfer the files back at the PC. That is a nice score for a 4GB device. The Voyager 1GB does the same job in just five seconds, and takes just two seconds to copy the files back at the PC.

Transferring 700 MB AVI file from a computer to the massive 4GB voyager takes one hundred and fifteen seconds, just slightly faster than the tiny OCZ device. The average writing speed of this big avi file is 6.08 MB/s. The 4GB drive takes forty seconds to copy the same file back at computer with an average speed of 12.7 MB/s. Voyager 1GB will do the same job in sixty seven seconds with an average writing speed of 10.4 MB/s. It needs forty seconds to copy the files back to the PC the same as the 4GB big brother.

In Short
It is small, cheap, practical and works at the sufficient speeds. It doesn't handle a bunch of small files that fast but it can keep up in coping with big files and music transfer even with smaller devices. It was hilarious to see that when we copied the 700MB file that took 115 seconds we had to repeat the test for a few times as we would get carried and away miss the exact time of copying.

The only big difference from the Voyager 1GB is the writing speed that can be significantly slower while the read speed is roughly the same or very similar.

It is robust and looks good, costs just below €/$100 price mark which is a great value for the device. It's all about the size, as you can wait a little bit longer and enjoy the commodity of 4GB addressing space. If you are after the volume, you need to either get this one or the one that just became available, the 8GB one. ?