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USB thumb drive reviews don’t make for the most interesting of reads, or the longest of reviews but it is always good to know how well a drive will perform before you buy it, and if it is good value for money.
At the moment, on Amazon, you can buy the Toshiba TransMemory U363 for £32.54 for the 128GB model and £16.98 for the 64GB model (live prices below), and it has a rated read speed of 120MB/s making it a good mid-range option in terms of price and performance.
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The drive has a premium all-metal design with a keyring allowing you to easily keep it on you with your keys.
The 128GB model I have has been as low as £29 on Amazon and this is the price you should aim to pay as other competing models are under £30. It is worth noting that the Toshiba TransMemory options have some of the best reviews on Amazon for this sort of memory, with 3,644 reviews and 73% of these with a 5-star review giving it 4.4 on average. So this may cost a couple of pounds more, but it looks like you are buying a superior product than other brands.
Testing
This drive has a rated read speed of 120MB/s with no indication of write speeds. Testing this on CrystalDiskMark reveals it is closer to 100MB/s for reads and around 18MB/s for write. As with all storage drives, once small file transfers are done the speed drops off considerably, in particular, small writes are painfully slow. This is standard though, and the faster TransMemory U365 had a similar drop-off.
Using ATTO Disk Benchmarks reveals mostly the same. This application allows us to look at disk read and write speeds across a range of block sizes. With this, we can see the transfer rate starts to peak at around the 32KB size for reads and over 256kb for writing.
In terms of real-world usage, you get similar performance as the above. Copying a 4GB movie file over had windows display a peak rate of about 18MB/s with some variation of a few MB as it transfers. Reading was much faster with a peak of around 100MB/s
Overall
This isn’t sold as a high-performance drive, nor is it priced as one. It is always convenient to have a USB drive on your, and the metal keyring design of this facilitates that.
The TransMemory U365 is a better performing drive for around the same price, but it is not quite as key ring friendly, and availability is only via eBay stores so it could be that it is now end of life.
Overall though, this does the job you want it to and comes in an attractive and durable form factor that is easy to keep on you.
Toshiba TransMemory U363 128GB Review
Summary
A durable thumb drive in a convenient form factor with decent speeds. Worth it when priced less than £30
Overall
75%-
Overall - 75%75%
I am James, a UK-based tech enthusiast and the Editor and Owner of Mighty Gadget, which I’ve proudly run since 2007. Passionate about all things technology, my expertise spans from computers and networking to mobile, wearables, and smart home devices.
As a fitness fanatic who loves running and cycling, I also have a keen interest in fitness-related technology, and I take every opportunity to cover this niche on my blog. My diverse interests allow me to bring a unique perspective to tech blogging, merging lifestyle, fitness, and the latest tech trends.
In my academic pursuits, I earned a BSc in Information Systems Design from UCLAN, before advancing my learning with a Master’s Degree in Computing. This advanced study also included Cisco CCNA accreditation, further demonstrating my commitment to understanding and staying ahead of the technology curve.
I’m proud to share that Vuelio has consistently ranked Mighty Gadget as one of the top technology blogs in the UK. With my dedication to technology and drive to share my insights, I aim to continue providing my readers with engaging and informative content.
