Kingston Launches Mammoth 256GB USB Drive

Kingston has launched the biggest little flash drive in the world: 256GB of storage in a 71mm package.

The Data Traveler 300 is inevitable given the increasing capacity of Flash drives, but is perhaps something of an oddity. It’s got the storage of a hard drive – holding around 50 DVDs worth of data, but it is significantly slower, due to limitations of NAND flash technology. It writes at around 20Mbyte/s and reads at 10Mbps – so reading all the data on the drive could take seven hours.

The device costs around £665 including VAT in the UK, holds more than 50 DVDs worth of data, and includes password protection. Instead of a cap, it has a retractable USB connector. This device is built to order, so it has to be requested through a reseller or e-tailer and collected a few days later.