CES 2013: Kingston Delivers Third-Gen DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 Flash Drive

Given the sheer number of reads that our look at Kingston’s 1TB HyperX Predator flash drive garnered, you’ve made it pretty-much impossible to follow-up to. However, once you realize that the 512GB version of that drive retails for around ~$1,500, you might come back down to earth and realize that Kingston’s other offerings might be more suitable. Case in point: Ultimate 3.0.

Officially called DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 Generation 3, this is the third iteration of the drive from Kingston as its name suggests. It features a brand-new design that’s almost identical to the Predator we talked about yesterday, which foregos the cap in lieu of having a slide design that exposes the USB connection only when it’s ready to be used. I’ve actually come to appreciate designs like this as I can’t tell you how many times I’ve lost caps to thumb drives. The fact that I still have them for my current collection is nothing short of a miracle.

As you’d expect with a new generation, the current Ultimate 3.0 is faster than the previous model – and by a rather fair margin. The first-generation Ultimate 3.0 boasted speeds of 80MB/s read and 60MB/s, while the second bumped those to 100MB/s read and 70MB/s write. This generation 3 model bumps those speeds once again to 150MB/s read and… 70MB/s write. Yes – unfortunately the write speed hasn’t been touched, but at least the read speed saw a considerable gain.

The drive retains backwards-compatibility with USB 2.0, where its speeds will be diminished to 30MB/s read and 20MB/s write. Ultimate 3.0 gen 3 will come in 32GB and 64GB flavors, and once again, pricing information isn’t being made available quite yet. We’ll be sure to get this drive in as soon as possible and put it through our rigorous testing.