INTRODUCTION

   I remember a time when in the market you could only find USB flash drives by a handful of companies (the well-established ones) so it didn't really take more than just a few minutes for you to pick the one you liked the most especially since all their performance levels were nearly identical (and if by some miracle a really faster model got released well you immediately knew which one it was). Today things have changed massively and so if you walk to the USB flash drive section of pretty much any store you will find a large number of models from an equally large number of manufacturers making it quite hard to pick the right one for the job (providing of course you don't just care about the size or looks). That being said the sheer number of USB flash drive models currently in the market makes it impossible for us to test all of them in order to make it easier for all of you to know what it is that you are really getting with your hard earned money but giving up is not in our vocabulary so today we will be taking yet another thorough look at one such device the Blaze B20 32GB USB 3.0 flash drive by Silicon Power.

   Silicon Power Computer & Communications Inc., founded in 2003 by a group of enthusiastic specialists in International Business, Global Marketing, and Technical Engineering of flash data storage industry. Well dedicated in brand image and product quality, Silicon Power has been recognized and well accepted by millions of end-users in more than 100 countries, becomes the world's leading manufacturer of flash memory cards, USB flash drives, card readers, DRAM modules, solid state disks, and portable hard drives in less than a decade. Headquartered in Taipei, we continuously established various branches throughout the world including Netherlands, Japan, Russia, Mainland China and other emerging market to reach the worldwide market. Silicon Power's overall performance has gradually drawn great attention worldwide. In 2006, we received Taiwan Rising Star Award for our foreign business achievement. In 2008, we won 17th National Outstanding Small & Medium Enterprise Award for our outstanding progress. Moreover, with superior quality and innovative design, our products stood out in several competitions and awarded Taiwan Excellence and COMPUTEX Design & Innovation Award in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Winning trust of global consumers, Silicon Power holds a record of successive double-digit revenue growth for last seven years. According to the Common Wealth Magazine's 2010 Survey of Taiwan Top 1000 Manufacturers, our 2009 revenue growth rate was ranked No.11 among Taiwan's top 1000 manufacturers, and even ranked No.1 in semiconductor industry. Positioned as Passionate, Creative and Hungry for Success, Silicon Power introduces products for users who are seeking individualized, unique and personal digital storage devices. With the mission of creating unprecedented experience for users, Silicon Power will endeavor to deliver a full range of high quality products that have innovative designs, distinctly unique features and comprehensive after sales services to create and fulfill your personal memory.

   The Blaze B20 USB flash drive is currently available in 4 capacities (8GB/16GB/32GB/64GB) and follows the trend of our days so it's quite small and light weight but thanks to USB 3.0 it's almost certain that it doesn't lag behind in terms of speed compared to the competition. The main body features a retractable USB connector design and is made by hard plastic coated with black matte color which leaves no fingerprints and is not easy to scratch. The downside of course is that the Blaze B20 is not a rugged USB flash drive so you can't really go all out when using it but the same can be said for most similar models in the market and since that usually means a lower price tag (and in some cases better looks) i think that's a good compromise. So since performance is pretty much the only thing we can really test with USB flash drives let's not waste any more time talking about it and rather put it through our tests to see exactly what Silicon Power has dished out this time.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE BLAZE B20

The typical package is once again used here so you can take a look at the drive prior to purchasing it. The main features along with the capacity of the drive at hand are also placed at the front while at the rear Silicon Power talks about the performance of the drive in 10 languages.

At just 55mm in length, 20mm in width and 8.6mm in thickness the Blaze B20 is without doubt one of the smallest USB 3.0 based USB flash drives we've ever used (to date).

As always to get the idea on just how large the USB flash drive at hand is we placed it next to some of the previously reviewed drives.

Although there's not a lanyard in the package the drive does have a lanyard area right next to the printed capacity space.

The retractable USB connector can be extended and retracted by using a large switch placed at the rear.

Silicon Power also has available their SP Widget software from their download section (showcased in several previous SP reviews) along with their drive recovery toolkit (for both USB 2.0/3.0 drives).

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   Since flash drives are basically plain storage media devices just like solid state drives and hard disk drives we are using almost the same testing methodology to successfully record the achieved performance numbers. The benchmark suites used are HD Tach RW (Read Speeds / Long Bench 32mb Zone Testing), HD Tune Pro (Read speeds), Sisoftware Sandra Pro (Read / Write speeds), AIDA 64 Engineer Edition (Average Linear Read / Random Read speeds), Crystal Disk Mark x64 (100MB Read / Write speeds) and finally ATTO (Max Read / Max Write speeds). Every test is repeated a total of 6 times after which the average performance numbers are recorded into our charts.

   All tests are performed with our main rig running Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Service Pack 1 complete with every update until July 20th 2013. As always for comparison purposes in the charts you will also find many other flash drivers which have been tested using the same exact test bench as the one in this review (we really can't keep every flash drive we get forever and also even if we could testing them all again and again would simply not be possible).

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK X64

CONCLUSION

   Much like most manufacturers currently Silicon Power launched the Blaze B20 for people who are looking to get a fast USB 3.0 flash drive that fits pretty much everywhere and although as you can see from our charts it's certainly not the fastest one around (Silicon Power does state that it's an entry level solution) still the noticeably faster solutions are indeed quite bulkier. Now there are certainly some exceptions like the tiny Patriot SuperSonic Mini but i can't say that its design will appeal to everyone (always compared to the Blaze B20) plus it's not available in capacities over 32GB. One of the things i still can't figure out about Silicon Power is the why they choose to always state Read/Write speeds in their product specifications sheets that are significantly lower than the ones we actually achieve on our test bench. It's certainly not a bad thing for consumers who may have less powerful systems but i really doubt that overall system performance has much to do with USB 3.0 performance (even our X58 based test rig manages to output similar numbers).

   Entry Level Solution is a phrase always used for cost-effective products that are aimed towards consumers who are not really interested in having the best performing device possible and the Blaze B20 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive is exactly that since it currently retails for just USD19.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 32.91Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de). Obviously the price inside the EU is nowhere close to the one from the other side of the Atlantic so i really hope Silicon Power takes all the necessary steps in order to figure out a way to resolve that issue (if not you can always purchase it from the USA to try and hit a lower price). Long story short the Blaze B20 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive may not get any performance awards from us but since it's quite fast, small, good looking and has a lifetime warranty it comes highly recommended for people who are looking for something along those lines (especially for USA residents).

PROS

- Build Quality
- Design
- Good R/W Performance
- Lifetime Warranty
- SP Widget Software Suite
- Price (Inside the USA) 

CONS

- Could Be Faster For Its Size
- Price (Inside The EU)