Conclusion:

The Patriot Memory Xporter Rage 16GB USB flash drive is marketed with a focus on its high speed performance. Testing confirmed that the read speeds were definitely impressive, and that it was capable of exceeding 30MB/s transfer rates... well in excess of the published specification of 27MB/s. When it comes to writing, the drive can put up decent speeds, but during testing it never came close to the published specification of 25MB/s.

An odd extra intended to help the drive achieve its maximum performance levels is a formatting utility available for download on the Patriot Memory site. While formatting the drive with this utility did improve write speeds over a Windows format, it was only to the tune of a jump from 18.70MB/s to 21.59MB/s (per CrystalDiskMark 3.0)... still shy of the 25MB/s mark. Considering the small boost in write speed, and a slightly degraded read speed, I would simply recommend that people skip the use of this special formatting utility and do it the easy way, with the utility already built in to every version of Windows.



Checking the Bigbruin.com shopping engine finds the Patriot Memory XPorter Rage 16GB USB flash drive at Newegg.com for about $37 (US), with free shipping. Checking out the rest of their inventory of 16GB USB flash drives shows that this is up to $12 more expensive than a good number of other drives with the same capacity.

The drive that the XPorter Rage was tested against (The 16GB Kingston DataTraveler Locker+) may cost twice as much due to the integrated encryption, but the comparison did show that the Rage isn't the fastest, despite the special speed related design features.

The Patriot Memory XPorter Rage USB flash drive may not be the fastest or least expensive 16GB drive out there, but it is an appealing product. It is fast enough, compact enough, and stylish enough to be worth considering, especially if you could find a good deal on one.

Pros:

» Fast read speeds - in excess of published specification
» Decent write speeds are possible when using the special formatting utility
» Compact
» Solid build quality seems semi-rugged

Cons:

» Special formatting utility degraded read performance
» Write speeds were decent, but never approached published specification
» USB connector is exposed even when drive is "closed"
» More expensive than many other 16GB USB flash drives

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