Apacer AH130

Apacer AH130

RRP incl GST: $35
Contact: ap.apacer.com

AT A GLANCE

• Tiny at 34.7 x 12.4 x 7.25mm
• Blue aluminium casing
• Approx 3MB/s write and 15MB/s read speeds

An extremely tiny USB 2.0 flash drive– pity about the transfer speeds.

It turns out that the drive –the Apacer Handy Steno AH130 – was still plugged into the back of the computer I was testing it on, inconspicuously hiding behind the USB plug for my mouse. Granted I’m the type of person who would lose their head if it wasn’t stapled on, however it still stands that ultra-small USB flash drives have their downsides.

If 34.7mm x 12.4mm x 7.25mm doesn’t already sound small enough to you, bear in mind that most of the bulk is taken up by the blue aluminium casing that you can remove the actual drive from, at which point accidental inhalation becomes a real threat.

Contrary to its physical size, the storage capacity of the AH130 is a whopping 8GB which is enough to store over 1,000 songs or even a full-length 720p HD movie.

Sadly the biggest drawback is transfer speeds. I could read files off the drive at up to 15MB/s which is acceptable for a USB 2.0 device, however writing even single large files averaged below 3MB/s which is just appalling. At this speed, filling up the full 8GB would take the thick end of an hour to complete.

For half the price of the AH130 you could get a faster, physically larger drive with the same storage capacity, but I can definitely see the miniscule size of this drive appealing to some people.