Lexar Echo ZX (16GB)

These days we’re all using netbooks, laptops and the like, and the idea of having always plugged-in storage is one that manufacturers are rushing to fill. Whether you want your music library always attached, or perhaps like me you run a range of portable apps on a work computer – with your employer’s permission, a tiny drive won’t get knocked out when you slip a laptop into a bag, which makes them very handy for road warriors.

The Lexar Echo is a tiny USB flash drive at just over 2cm in length and 1.5cm wide. When it’s plugged in, only 7mm protrudes from your USB port. Our review model came as a 16GB version, but you can also get 8GB and 32GB versions.

Lexar claims that the write speed for the Echo ZX is 28Mbyte/sec maximum, and our testing showed consistent read speeds around 25Mbyte/sec. For write speed, we achieved 13Mbyte/sec, close to the claimed maximum of 15Mbyte/sec. These speeds are very good and even though the Sandisk Fit, below, beats them, it’s reflective of a performance flash drive.

Conveniently, you can install the included Echo Backup software even if you don’t have administrator privileges on your system, which makes it perfect for students or hotdeskers who may work in My Documents on multiple computers. The backup is fast and seamless, and you can opt to encrypt or password-protect your files for extra protection, or even backup online to the included 2GB file storage.

It’s designed to plug-and-stay, which explains the lack of a keyring attachment, but we kind of wished for one anyway. That’s the only real flaw in an otherwise cool little gadget.