1. Meet the Lexar 64GB Jumpdrive S45
We are looking at the Lexar 64GB Jumpdrive S45, a tiny flash storage device designed to be plugged into the USB port of your laptop, TV, or car stereo system, and expand its storage capabilities.
As you see below, the obvious advantage of the drive is its size - its compact, low-profile design means you can plug it in and forget it-it’s always at the ready for storing and accessing files. You can store and transfer photos, videos, and files at USB 3.0 speeds - up to 150MB/s read and 45MB/s write.
The drive also includes a security software and it’s available in a range of colorful capacity options (16GB-128GB). The EncryptStick Lite software is a security solution with 256-bit AES encryption to help protect your essential files against corruption, loss, and deletion. You can create create a password-protected vault that automatically encrypts data. And for peace of mind, files that are deleted from the vault are securely erased and can’t be recovered.
Product highlights
Low-profile, plug-and-stay design
Stores and transfers content quickly with USB 3.0 performance (up to 150MB/s read and 45MB/s write)
Securely protects files using EncryptStick Lite software, a security solution with 256-bit AES encryption
Compatible with PC and Mac systems
Backwards compatible with USB 2.0 devices
Three-year limited warranty
Capacities:
- 16GB in orange (up to 150MB/s read, 20MB/s write)
- 32GB in blue (up to 150MB/s read, 30MB/s write)
- 64GB in teal (up to 150MB/s read, 45MB/s write)
- 128GB in black (up to 150MB/s read and 45MB/s write)
2. Using the device, transfer tests
Let's plug the Lexar 64GB Jumpdrive S45 into a USB 3.0 port of our PC through USB 3.0 plug. Windows 7 immediately recognized the device, which comes factory formatted with the FAT32 file system. The drive includes the EncryptStick Lite software, which occupies almost 50MB of the drive's total 64GB nominal capacity.
We are ready to run some benchmarks with the drive.
The CrystalDiskMark 3.0.2e x64 edition benchmark topped at 133 MB/sec for the sequential read test and was at the range of 85-100 MB/sec for sequential write. The performance was also high for the category while accessing 512K files (112.8 Mb/s), although writing was slower at 21-25 MB/s.
Reading small 4K/4K QD32 files was not very fast, mainly in the writing part. The drive will write and read files in a similar manner whether they can be compressed or not:
The ATTO Disk Benchmark returned similar sequential read/write speeds, and showed a relatively consistent reading and writing performance of the drive with files larger than 64KB:
Real world tests
Howe about using the drive in casual everyday tasks? We moved some Mp3s, videos and a bunch of small files from our computer's internal SSD to the plugged Lexar 64GB Jumpdrive S45, and vide versa. Here are the results:
Write to the Lexar 64GB Jumpdrive S45:
- 1.4GB of MP3 files: 28 seconds ~ 50 MB/s
- 2.6GB of images: 2 min 45 sec ~ 15,7 MB/s
- MKV video file 3.5GB: 52 sec ~ 67.3 MB/s
- Small files 550 MB - 50,000 files: 6 mins ~ 0.3 MB/s
Read from the Lexar 64GB Jumpdrive S45:
- 1.4GB MP3 files: 11 seconds ~127MB/s
- 2.6GB of images: 23 sec ~ 113 MB/s
- MKV video file 3.5GB: 24 sec ~ 145.8 MB/s
- Small files 550 MB - 50,000 files: 39 sec ~14.1 MB/s
3. Summary
The Lexar 64GB Jumpdrive S45 offers a convenient way to expand your laptop's storage capacity, as this tiny storage device can be plugged into your laptops's USB 3.0 port and essentially become part of it. It will not let you down in terms of performance, delivering fast read and write sequential speeds, staying well within the performance figures quoted by Lexar.
Both the benchmarks and some real read/write testing unveiled the weaknesses of the drive when it handles very small files, but this was expected from a small flash drive.
The Lexar 64GB Jumpdrive S45 retails online at Amazon for $25. Typically, it doesn't make sense to talk about the competition when we have to do with such low-priced products, but we could just mention that its price is a bit higher than similar flash drives from Samsung (Samsung 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Fit - $18) or the Sandisk (SanDisk Ultra Fit 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive - $17.5). But don't forget that the Jumpdrive S45 is bundled with the Encrypt Stick Lite software :)