Kingston Data Traveler Locker + G3 (DTLPG3/16GB) USB 3.0 Personal Data Protection with Automatic Cloud Backup, Silver

It's difficult to review USB memory sticks. It's not as if they all have vastly different methods of solving the basic requirement of data storage. However for this one I'll go out on a limb and say it's the best-balanced combination of features I've encountered from any memory stick.LOOKS: I'd still give it second-place in this regard to its Kingston stable-mate, the Data Traveler SE9, which I also own. The latter item is the most beautiful USB stick ever. It's like a piece of modern sculpture. However this Locker G3 is much more stylish item than the shoe-box of the Kingston Data Traveler Ultimate G3 (which I also own). That one is a really ugly lump of memory! This Locker G3 is metal, every so-slightly roughened surface, and feel just the right finish and weight. There is also a hole at the end of the body which I have inserted a small split-ring (much smaller than typical key-ring size) with a stub lanyard attached. Overall I'm very happy to be seen in public with this!PERFORMANCE: Beautiful as the SE9 is (did I mention that?) it is pretty slow. This is a very much better unit for speed. I've made no attempt to generate pointless benchmarks of MB/s transfer times - they really don't relate to real-life usage. However I do have a bunch of portable apps with a launch menu stored on my Locker G3 and I can happily run a file manager, browser, text editor etc all from the device itself. I've installed LibreOffice Portable on it,and while the initial launch takes several seconds, thereafter usability is absolutely fine.SECURITY: Very pleased indeed to have this option. As yet I've no way of verifying how secure and robust the encryption system is, but the sooner all manufacturers of USB sticks treat this as a standard feature the better as far as I'm concerned. None of my existing USB sticks (did I mention I have quite a few?) has any form of security built-in. Unlocking the device is a simple process when you plug it in - just a few seconds. The security software has even survived me shutting down the PC without quitting the app first. And it started perfectly next time. So far, very happy.VALUE: Given all the positives above, plus the good 32GB capacity, from a reputable manufacturer, I think a price in the £20-£25 range is very good value for money. It's even come down in price by a couple of ££ since I bought mine, but I still think I bought it at a good price so I'm happy.OVERALL: Can't suggest any reason why you wouldn't want to own one of these. Go get it now.

A few days ago I bought the Kingston Data Traveler Vault Privacy (8GB) and gave it 4 Stars. Compared with that, this one at 16GB capacity wins the full 5 Stars. Here's why: it's smaller (see below); faster (at least on my system); tougher (all metal); cheaper (twice the capacity for around two-thirds the price); and probably just as secure, although it's hard to be sure (see below).Set-up follows the usual Kingston protocol: ensure your PC has two consecutive drive letters free; plug-in the drive; enter a complex password twice; decline the cloud backup (or accept if you want - no idea what that's about); add contact details if you want; and you're done. You can change the drive letters in Control Panel.On my system, speeds look better than the Vault Privacy. This one is also much smaller, and it has a bigger 'ole (roughly 2x2mm) which enables me to latch it inside my key wallet - something I could not do with the other. Here are the approx. dimensions for this drive (in mm) with the Vault Privacy dimensions in brackets for comparison: length/height with cap on: 60 [79]; width 18 [20]; thickness 9 [11]. If you need a fast drive to keep in your pocket, this blows the Vault Privacy out of the water in my opinion. If you need tough encryption, better do more research: they both look good to me, but the Vault Privacy specification states it has 256-bit encryption and I cannot find any data on encryption for this one - neither on Amazon nor on the Kingston press release announcing this product range! If encryption grade is vital, do your due diligence.This USB3 drive looks good in shiny, er, aluminium (?). It replaces a 4GB USB2 model of a similar design that's finally run out of space but did me proud for around five years and still works fine.

I bought 20 of these for use within our charity for storing sensitive data. The product is very good and quite easy to set up with the preferred language and a password and it is easy to access using the password once it is in daily use. I would have given 5 stars except that one of the 20 received was secondhand. It was in a plastic bag, not in a blister pack, and when I plugged it in the log in details came up in Italian. By creating a new password it automatically re-formatted the device so that there is no old Italian data on it, but I have not been able to change the initial log-in language to English.

So the main problem with usb sticks is that they're ever so easy to lose.And if you lose one with sensitive data on it, a world of hurt beckons.These are a great solution. A read-only drive containing encryption software that you have to use to unlock the writable part of the drive.Works really well. A colleague uses one with her Mac and also swears by them.They feel solid, too. Robust and well built.This is my second - I had the 16 GB version, decided to trade up and passed the first one to another colleague, having reset it using the encryption software to reinitialise the drive.No bad points. If you want secure portable storage you can hang on a keyring, this is well worth a look.