The Basics:

While many people refer to USB flash drives as "thumb drives" regardless of shape or size, this item actually fits the bill in my opinion. The length, thickness, and general shape are somewhat thumb-like, and while it isn't the smallest flash drive I have used it is definitely compact.

The drive has a rubberized outer covering which makes it easy to grip, and combined with the decent build quality makes it seem semi-rugged. The black and red color scheme is attractive, in an almost Bigbruin.com pallete.



With the USB connector exposed, the 16GB Patriot Memory XPorter Rage is as you see it in the images above and below.



In the exposed position it looks much like other USB drives with their cap missing, but this one does not need a cap. Simply slide the housing back to retract the USB connector and a red ribbed area is exposed as the connector disappears. The movement is firm, so the connector does not come out inadvertently, and there is the slightest of indications that the ends have catches to help keep the drive either fully open or fully closed.



The images above show the two sides of the drive, one of which shows the Patriot logo, and the other one shows the capacity.

Test Setup:

In order to get a sense of what sort of read/write data transfer rates could be achieved with the Xporter Rage 16GB USB flash drive, I connected it to a Windows 7 Pro system running an Intel Core i7-920 quad-core processor, an ASUS P6X58D-E LGA 1366 Intel X58 motherboard, 6GB of Patriot Memory Viper II Sector 7 1800MHz DDR3 memory, and a 6GB/s Seagate Barracuda 2TB hard drive.

For comparison purposes, the only other 16GB USB flash drive I had on hand was also connected; the Kingston 16GB DataTraveler Locker+.