LaCie RuggedKey (16GB)

Perhaps more than any other peripheral, flash drives sustain a beating on a daily basis. We haphazardly toss them into our bags, attach them to our key chains, and routinely drop them, among other things. It therefore doesn't come as much of a surprise that the proliferation of so-called "rugged" flash drives has been on the rise. The LaCie RuggedKey (16GB) ($39.99 direct) is the latest entrant in this arena, encased in a removable bright rubber orange sleeve designed to protect it from life's rigors. And thanks to its speedy USB 3.0 interface, it's one of the faster flash drives we've seen. That said, more durable and affordable flash drives are out there.

Design and Features
The LaCie RuggedKey consists of two parts. The drive's chassis is a thin, P-shaped sliver of metal that sports a keychain ring on the upper right side. While this portion is fairly minimalist in appearance, the actual "rugged" component is a cylindrical bright orange rubber sleeve that slips on an off of the drive. The sleeve is designed to be used whenever the RuggedKey is transported and, conversely, must be removed for the drive to be plugged in. When sporting the sleeve, the RuggedKey is roughly the size of a shotgun shell, measuring 2.09 by .83 by 1.06 inches (HWD). While the rubber sleeve helpfully seals the RuggedKey off from water and temperature damage while also making it drop-resistant, the fact that it's removable means that it can easily be lost. Although the bright orange color makes it slightly easier to find if this is the case, it nonetheless constitutes a design flaw, as the RuggedKey isn't quite so rugged without its protective sleeve. This stands in contrast with the Corsair Flash Voyager GT (32GB), whose ruggedness is inseparable from the drive itself since its chassis is constructed out of a durable rubber. On a related note, the rubbery texture of the RuggedKey's sleeve texture attracts a noticeable amount of dirt and dust, and began to bear an uncomfortable resemblance to a stale cheese doodle after rolling off my desk a few times.

Given its cylindrical shape, the RuggedKey feels bulkier in the pockets that other comparable drives, with the exception of the Duracell Rugged USB Drive (16GB) . And the bulkiness doesn't stop at your chinos. As a result of the drive's asymmetrical P-shaped design, the slight protrusion on the side of the chassis crowds out neighboring ports to the immediate right.

The RuggedKey is both Windows- and Mac-compatible and offers 14.8GB of usable space out of the box since it comes pre-loaded with some software. Among the included programs are LaCie's proprietary Backup Software, a password protection program that utilizes 256-bit software encryption, MacFuse, and a free one-year subscription to Wuala Online, LaCie's cloud storage program.

The RuggedKey is pricier than most flash drives. At $39.99, the 16GB unit we tested breaks down to $2.50 per gigabyte, exactly twice that of both the Verbatim Store 'n' Go V3 (16GB) and Duracell Rugged USB Drive (both $1.25 per gigabyte). It also costs more than the comparably rugged Corsair Voyager GT ($2.03 per gigabyte) as well as the already costly SanDisk Extreme USB 3.0 ($2.18 per gigabyte).

Performance
Though it was unable to run PCMark 7, the RuggedKey was an exceptionally brisk performer, whizzing by most of its peers, with the exception of the class-leading SanDisk Extreme USB 3.0 drive. In timed data transfer tests, its USB 3.0 speeds of 37.7 MBps (write) and 112 MBps (read), fell short of the SanDisk Extreme 3.0's write speed (110 MBps), but still held the edge when it came to read speed (105 MBps). Otherwise, the RuggedKey didn't break a sweat outperforming both the Verbatim Store 'n' Go USB Drive (10.7 MBps write, 79.2 MBps read) and Corsair Flash Voyager GT (36.7 write, 95.6 read) using USB 3.0.

Using a slower USB 2.0 connection, the RuggedKey's write speed (27.59 MBps) once again fell short of that of the SanDisk Extreme 3.0 (29.5 MBps) while its read speed (32.43 MBps) outperformed the latter (31.7 MBps). Similarly, the RuggedKey edged past the rest of its competitors' USB 2.0 speeds, especially the Duracell Rugged USB Drive (4.1 MBps write, 12.5 MBps read). The RuggedKey's USB 2.0 write speed also breezed past that of the Verbatim Store 'n' Go V3 (10.2 MBps) but still fell slightly short of the latter's read speed (33.6 MBps).

Thanks to its speedy USB 3.0 interface, the LaCie RuggedKey (16GB) is one of the quicker flash drives out there. And despite the flaws in its rugged design, its protective sleeve does nonetheless succeed in withstanding the rigors of life. Still, its high price tag is difficult to justify in the face of better alternatives in terms of both ruggedness and speed. The durable Corsair Flash Voyager GT (32GB) performs nearly as quickly and can handle its fair share of bruises without relying on an easy-to-lose sleeve. Meanwhile, for those who consider pure, unbridled speed a top priority, the Editors' Choice SanDisk Extreme 3.0 (64GB) remains the drive to beat.

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the LaCie RuggedKey (16GB) with several other flash drives side by side.

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