INTRODUCTION
I got my very first USB flash drive back in 2002 and since i was using it for work even then i knew just how important portable storage media really are. Of course today things have changed and so although back then even 4GB were more than enough to store all my files today even 128GB are simply is not enough. Things are even worse if you're in a field that has extensive storage requirements (like video editing) since i know many people who are going around with 2TB portable hard drives. Nothing of course beats a USB flash drive in terms of size so naturally manufacturers started upping their capacity to come close or even match that of portable hard drives. Kingston was the first manufacturer to address this matter with the release of the HyperX Predator 512GB/1TB USB 3.0 flash drives back in 2013 and 4 years later they are also the very first manufacturer to release a 2TB USB flash drive called the DataTraveler Ultimate GT.
Kingston Technology Company, Inc. is the world’s largest independent manufacturer of memory products. Kingston designs, manufactures and distributes memory products for desktops, laptops, servers, printers, and Flash memory products for PDAs, mobile phones, digital cameras, and MP3 players. Through its global network of subsidiaries and affiliates, Kingston has manufacturing facilities in California, Taiwan, China and sales representatives in the United States, Europe, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Australia, India, Taiwan, China, and Latin America.
The brand new DataTraveler Ultimate GT USB flash drive is a USB 3.1 Gen 1 model (USB 3.0 renamed) that features a durable enclosure (retractable design) made out of zinc alloy and plastic and is currently available in 1TB and 2TB capacities. The entire drive is based around a Phison PS2251-08 NAND flash controller (supports global wear-leveling and power saving functions) which Kingston has paired with Toshiba MLC NAND flash modules in order to allow it to reach data transfer speeds of 300MB/s read and 200MB/s write. Obviously these numbers may not compete directly with what we've seen in the past by some portable SSDs like both the T1 and T3 by Samsung (among others) but they are far greater than what we generally see with regular USB flash drives.
SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES
PACKAGING AND CONTENTS
Kingston packs the DT Ultimate GT inside an aluminum box that has the product name and their logo at the top.
The serial number, barcode, OS compatibility and warranty information are all placed at the base.
Most of the interior is taken by a thick piece of black foam which is used to keep the entire bundle secure.
Along with the drive itself you are also getting a USB extension cable and a carrying pouch.
THE DATATRAVELER ULTIMATE GT 2TB
The zinc alloy enclosure of the DT Ultimate GT weighs just 60g and measures 75.18mm in length, 27mm in width and 21.02mm in height.
To showcase its somewhat "bulky" size we placed the DT Ultimate GT next to several more "down to earth" USB flash drives (MX-FX 32GB, MX-ES Ultra 32GB, HyperX Fury 64GB, DT R3.0 G2 64GB).
An activity LED is placed at the top of the drive right next to its printed capacity.
At the rear of the enclosure we see the company name and some certifications printed onto the center plastic piece.
Just like its predecessor the HyperX Predator the DT Ultimate G2 features a retractable design for the USB plug.
If you want to make sure that you own an original Kingston product you can check the serial number printed ontop of the USB plug.
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-1000MB 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 (0 = we were unable to complete that test).
All tests are performed with our main rig running Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Service Pack 1 complete with every update until 15th of June 2017 (UASP compatible models are tested using a fresh Windows 10 Pro installation again on a HyperX Predator 480GB PCIe SSD). 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
When Kingston released the HyperX Predator USB flash drives 4 years ago they had very little to no competition in the market in terms of not only capacity but also performance so if these were things you just had to have their models where a must. Today however things are not quite the same and with so many portable SSD models in the market that score higher in terms of performance the Ultimate GT drives have only their somewhat compact size and capacity going for them. We are not saying that their performance is bad since the 2TB model did hit well over 300MB/s in read and 200MB/s in write performance in some tests but there are quite a few other models with similar performance (some of which we’ve reviewed in the past). The good news however is that there’s not much competition when it comes to available capacity so this is where these drives come on top.
Price is perhaps the single largest drawback of the Kingston Ultimate GT 2TB USB 3.1 Gen 1 Flash Drive since it currently retails for USD1455.76 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 1549Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) a price tag which is basically double what you’d have to pay for let’s say the Portable SSD T3 2TB by Samsung. Granted the Ultimate GT is quite smaller but at the same time for twice the prize (and let’s not forget inferior performance) I think most people would not care much about that. Still it’s a fact that Kingston has once again released the highest capacity USB flash drive in the market currently and that along with its very good performance levels are more than enough for us to give it our Golden Award.
PROS
- Build Quality (Zinc Metal Alloy Casing)
- Very Good Read/Write Performance
- Massive Storage Space (2TB)
- SSD Type USB Flash Drive
- USB 3.1 Gen 1 Extension Cable
CONS
- Very High Price Tag (For Most People)
- Performance Levels (Compared To Portable SSDs)
- Drive Thickness (For Some)