Big and Slow -- but Good

I bought this product, 128 Gigabytes, because I want to be able to put large chunks of data in my pocket and physically be able to transport it to another person/machine. (We used to call that "sneaker net.") *** Construction: Yes, it is plastic, but still pretty well constructed, not too flimsy. I have seen far worse. The slide action is actually very smooth, doesn't feel floppy or bend. (I only buy slide type drives because I usually lose the caps if they are not attached.) Overall, construction is quite satisfactory. *** Size: Well, 128 GB is BIG. I checked and the drive delivers the full 128 GB without excessive overhead. (There are some other drives out there that take 20% of the space for overhead and there are some that fake the total size.) So, it gets positive marks for size. *** Speed: Unfortunately, it is pretty slow too. It is USB 2.0 not 3.0 but is considerably slower than even the USB 2.0 specifications. My experience varied from 1 to 10 Megabytes per second, usually 4-5 MB/s, write speed. That is over 6 hours to fill the drive. My other USB 2.0 drives are typically at least twice a fast. Reading data was better, perhaps double or triple the write speed. One can guess that the electronics of the drive might get slower with the larger drive since it has to keep track of where all the data is stored and where there remains free space. I don't know about this Cruzer line, but it is not uncommon for other USB drives to decrease in speed as storage space increases. *** Price: Obviously, I thought the price was good since I bought it. The USB 2.0 drives are getting very inexpensive now that the world is changing over to USB 3.0. Of course, USB 3.0 devices (at least low power USB 3.0 devices) usually work in USB 2.0 slots, but you don't get the 3.0 speeds in a 2.0 slot. Reverse is true too, USB 2.0 devices like this are not suddenly going to get faster when you plug it into a 3.0 USB slot. *** Recommendation: If you need size and speed can be tolerated, buy this. If you need more speed, there are other USB 2.0 drives that are faster. I warn buyers that there are other drives that are big and worse. Big cheap USB 2.0 drives are common and others worse construction and worse speed and so poorly manufactured that they don't work or fail often. So, this drive has its limitations, but I can say from experience that the "no name" cheap drives are so often fakes or junk that I won't buy them (again). *** Bottom Line: The Cruzer 128 GB does the job I need it to do. You may like it too or you may want to stick with a smaller version. *** Caveat: I never trust a USB flash drive or ANY drive with my only copy of my data. All drives fail. I use this to transport data, not permanently store it.Read full review