OCZ 1GB Mini-Kart USB Thumb Drive

Flash memory. It’s sounding the death knell for floppy drives due to the much higher capacities and increased portability afforded to users. Back in the day, floppies were great for slapping a few small files on and carrying to your buddies house for sharing but those days went the way of the dodo with the advent of writable CD media and more complex and larger files. CD’s have one major drawback though… you can’t pop one in your shirt pocket and carry it.

Even if you could, you would have to buy sleeves to protect the fragile data side (and much more fragile label side) from scratches whereas the floppy was great. It was self contained and fairly hardy as long as you didn’t bend it.

Fast forward a bit and we come to the introduction of USB flash memory sticks. They started small in capacity and were decently sized, but more portable than a CD. It took a few years for flash sticks to surpass the aging CD-R in capacity and by the time they did, CD-R was eclipsed by DVDR media but DVDR/RW is still disk based and still subject to the same issues. Lack of grab and go portability and fragility. Lately though there have been leaps and bounds made with flash memory. The capacities are soaring to new heights and the physical sizes are still shrinking. The price is shrinking as well.

I remember when you’d pay $1-$4 per megabyte for flash memory which made the CD-R look very appealing, today you can pick up a gig USB flash drive for around $50. Much better return on your investment since the life cycle of flash memory is in the millions of reads and writes so it’s pretty limitless as temporary storage. Until recently though the USB flash media has still been pretty good sized. OCZ saw this as a trend that needed changing and did something about it and today I’m taking a look at the results… the OCZ MINI-KART.

As you saw in the package shots, the MINI-KART isn’t much larger than your garden variety media card. In fact, sharp eyed readers will notice that the included carry case is the same size as a (and has the impression to hold) SD media card carrying case.

Here’s what OCZ has to say about the MINI-KART:

“OCZ Technology makes data storage and transferring easier and more portable than ever with the OCZ Mini-Kart USB Flash Drive. The ultra thin and lightweight Mini-Kart holds up to 2GBs of data in an ultra-compact unit that you have to see to believe.

Instantaneously play music, view images, or open files as if the Mini-Kart was an onboard hard drive with True Plug and Play functionality. The ultra-thin miniature USB 2.0 Mini-Kart drive is designed with ultimate portability and reliability in mind and is backed by a 3 year warranty.”

Features

• Dimensions: 43mm x 19mm x 2.8mm (L x W x H)
• High Speed USB 2.0 Certified
• True Plug and Play (Compatible with MAC OS X)
• Available in 512MB, 1GB, and 2GB capacities
• Blue LED Status Light
• Small Lanyard Keyring
• 3 Year Warranty

Now, as you might have noticed OCZ says it comes with a lanyard, mine was missing it. I gave OCZ customer service a call and after 6 tries and 3 hours I was finally able to get through. I had to call their main number, go through the operator and sit on hold for a few minutes because the direct number for customer service kept shunting me over to voice mail. I was less than impressed by that but I found that if you’re persistent you will eventually get a human in customer service.

Anyways, I explained to the tech what the issue was and he said they’d pop one in the mail right away. This was over a week ago and I’ve yet to receive my lanyard so again, I’m less than impressed. I will give them the benefit of the doubt and continue to hope it arrives but it’s a guessing game.

The MINI-KART is small. In fact, it’s so small that the tang end is bereft of the usual metal shield to protect the contacts. OCZ says you can slip the MINI-KART in your wallet and I suppose you could but I’d advise against leaving it there for extended periods of time. Especially during summer. Face it, we’re people, we get hot and we sweat. That sweat will soak into your wallet and whatever is inside will become damp and since were talking about an electronic component here that’s not exactly a good thing to have happen. Not to mention the fact that most men sit on their wallets. While the wallet is flexibl,e let me assure you that the MINI-KART is not.