Bought three of these Samsung BAR plus in 64GB, two for key chain use, one to have handy on my desk. Made sure Amazon was the seller to help avoid any risk of non-genuine Samsung parts. Just arrived and burned each one in briefly using CrystalDiskMark, so I could both be sure each worked and compare speeds between the units. All three tested within about 2% of each other on each benchmark. Importantly, the sequential read speeds exceeded the claimed 200 MB/s in each case, averaging 224 MB/s. Writes were all 34MB/s. All tests were conducted on my laptop, a Lenovo Flex5, on a USB 3.0 port. Clearly the sequential read speeds take advantage of USB3.0 bandwidth.
Overall very pleased for the price and the key chain friendly stainless steel casing. Note I did put a cover on the USB end of each, using the covers from Honbay 40pcs Semitransparent Black and Clear Plastic USB Male Anti-Dust Plug Stopper Cap Cover . I wanted just a bit more protection when used on key chains from dents and the elements. These Honbay covers fit snugly yet come off relatively easily. These feel like TPR, which is good for grip and flexibility.
Pros
+Fairly fast overall for the price, and clearly very fast at sequential reads.
+Good looking, tough stainless steel body
+Great form factor for handling - only as wide as a USB port so they won't cause any interference with adjacent ports, a bit longer than the really small USB drives designed to stay mounted all the time, but therefore very easy to get in and out, especially with the raised end near the lanyard hole providing a nice grip.
+Hangs just fine on my key chain, a Maxpedition Gear Keyper Maxpedition Gear Keyper, Foliage Green using a FREEkey ring, the absolutely most secure rings you can buy in my experience FREEkey Accessory Ring Spares, 10 Count
Cons
-wish for faster write speeds
-gets warm but not so hot as to be a concern so far
No data yet on reliability, will updated if I find any issues.
CrystalDiskMark results, below...
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CrystalDiskMark 6.0.0 x64 (C) 2007-2017 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : https://crystalmark.info/
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* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes
Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 224.198 MB/s
Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 34.365 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 8,T= 8) : 13.355 MB/s [ 3260.5 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 8,T= 8) : 13.147 MB/s [ 3209.7 IOPS]
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 13.285 MB/s [ 3243.4 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 13.377 MB/s [ 3265.9 IOPS]
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 12.632 MB/s [ 3084.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 12.593 MB/s [ 3074.5 IOPS]
Test : 1024 MiB [E: 0.0% (0.0/59.8 GiB)] (x5) [Interval=5 sec]
Date : 2018/07/03 4:03:29
OS : Windows 10 Professional [10.0 Build 17134] (x64)
Decent performance for a 32GB drive, but wish the write speeds were better. ATTO tests shows a solid 227MB/s read speeds, but write speeds were in the 25-28MB/s range. In Windows 10, write speeds are regularly between 16-20MB/s when copying large files. Gets warm but not hot, unlike the last gen METAL BAR drive. The Grey drive has a matte feel, not slippery like the chrome version of the previous gen (which I was always dropping because of it's slippery nature).
Other drives (like Sandisk Flair) that cost less offer about the same write speed, so I would say that write speeds are this drives downside. BUT, I use these as Windows installers, so price and read speed is most important to me. It's a few bucks more than a Sandisk Flair, but I've found the Flair's to be unreliable after about a year, so hopefully these will fair better.
I was looking for USB flash drives with decent random 4k read/write speeds. For my intended usage (Linux Live USB with persistence and PortableApps), those criteria are quite important. The SanDisk Extreme PRO USB 3.1 came very highly recommended and benchmarks very high. Unfortunately, it also has the price tag to match its excellent performance. At its price point, I'm more inclined to just buy a small enclosure plus M.2 SATA SSD.
I purchased the Samsung BAR Plus after seeing review images of CrystalDiskMark showing greater than 10MB/s random 4k read/write. On most USB flash drives, you'd be lucky to get 5MB/s random 4k and there are even some bad USB 3.0 ones that do significantly less than 1MB/s. For reference, mechanical HDDs do around 2-4MB/s in those tests.
Been using this drive for a week and so far so good. I currently have Linux Mint (with various desktop environments), Manjaro, Kubuntu and Ubuntu with 1GB casper-rw persistence files for each distro on the drive. Performance was slightly (but noticeably) better compared to the SanDisk Ultra USB 3.0 I had been using and way, way, way better than the metal USB 2.0 Kingston I had on my keychain. Mine got uncomfortably warm after transferring ~20GB of data (via YUMI Multiboot) but I reckon that was because space was tight and there was practically no airflow. The drive cooled down quite quickly once I had it plugged to my laptop where it was getting a mild breeze.
If money were no object, I'd get the Extreme PRO. Alas, it is and the Samsung BAR Plus makes for a nice, inexpensive alternative for my use-case. I'm buying a couple more of these so I can have dedicated drives for the distros I liked (with 20+ GB persistence partition instead of max 4GB persistent file).
I had problems with various 128 gig USB drives when they first came out. Some models could heat your home, stop your PC dead in it's tracks, skip when playing audio files, etc. But the Little White 128 Gig Samsung USB (Fit?) has been working w/o issue, and now have around five of the 128 Gig Samsung Silvery (Bar?) models, and no worries there.
Was about to order two of the Silvery 128s, but noticed a Samsung 256 gig was released six-ish weeks ago. Was nervous to try a new kind of 256, but based on the previous rep of the Samsung 128s ordered a MUF-256BE4/AM. At present the cost looks to be about $11-ish more than the price of two 128s, but the extra cost would be worthwhile as it would take up only a single port on my PC.
Not much to tell (yet) other than IT'S HERE.
- Its dark-ish gray, so it's easy to tell apart from the Silvery 128s I already own.
- There is also a silvery 256 version - MUF-256BE3/AM.
- The "hole" at one end is smaller and triangle-shaped compared to the 128 gig version.
- It came formatted in EXFAT, and as I use EXFAT for my USB drives, it's Ready Out of The Box.
- Properties show as "256,631,898,192 bytes, 239 gig".
- So far I have only plugged it into one PC in a USB 2.0 port and no noticeable increase in temperature. I read another person had an heating issue under certain conditions. Will try other PCs (USB 2&3) over the next few days and see how things go.
...I've got around 28-ish days to Try Try Try and Hope Hope Hope that everything works out. Time will tell.
FYI: POSSIBLE CONTRADICTION IN SPECIFICATIONS.
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The web page (here) for ASIN B07BPKL2D2 lists the following for Temp Specs:
(5) Withstands -25°C to 85°C operating, -40°C to 85°C non-operating
This information is also shown in the "fine print" (#3) on Samsung's web page for this product.
But if one clicks on "See All Specs" further down the Samsung page, it lists the following under Environmental Specs: Operating Temp 0~60C and Non-Operating -10~70C
...this would explain why some sites list differing sets of values. Samsung has *both* on the same page. (?)
I pre-ordered the 128gb version from Amazon and received it in late May. I’ve been using it regularly since then.
My main use for it is to hold a copy of my library of FLAC, MP3, AAC, and ALAC files. It’s usually plugged into my network streamer. Whenever I purchase new FLAC tracks, I download them to my computer, write them to this drive, and then plug the drive into the streamer.
I’ve also used it to move large amounts of JPG and RAW photos from one computer to another.
Read/write speeds are as advertised, which is faster than any of the dozen or so USB drives I’ve owned. Build quality is excellent - the drive is tough as nails, yet the champagne color is elegant. It doesn’t feel hot when reading or writing large amounts of files or when plugged in to my computer for long periods of time.
It’s not the smallest USB drive for sure. It sticks out about an inch. But it doesn’t FEEL large and clunky to me, the way some heavy-duty drives do.
Highly recommended.
May I also just say: $45 for 128gb of storage is incredible. There are $1000 Apple laptops that have only 128gb of storage.
Feature Product
- Redefine everyday file transfers with speeds up to 200MB/s
- Reliable and secure storage for your photos, videos, music, and files
- Rugged metal casing for durability with key ring to prevent loss
- Safeguard your data (Water proof, shock proof, magnet proof, temperature proof, x-ray proof)
- USB 3.1 flash drive with backwards compatibility (USB 3.0, USB 2.0)
Description
Redefine everyday file transfers with the Samsung BAR Plus. Fast and convenient read speeds up to 200MB/s, so that you have more time to work, play, watch, and create. A reliable and secure solution for your personal photos, videos, music, documents, and files. Water proof, shock proof, magnet proof, temperature proof, and x-ray proof. Experience Samsung’s industry-leading V-NAND (64-later) technology.
Samsung Bar Plus 32GB drive is a looker, there's no questions about it. It looks better than any USB drive I had.
It's well made and compact (at the same time not being too tiny so its hard to plug-in/out or easy to lose) so that it won't obstruct any USB ports around it. It's great value. Then I compared it with my Lexar ("L") S74 64GB drive (yes, usually the higher capacity drives will have higher speeds) to see if this uses USB 3.1 bandwidth properly.
"L" drive in terms of looks is quite opposite of the Samsung Bar Plus. "L" is bulky, has brash colors, plasticy,... But speeds-wise, it's a different story.
Samsung's read speed is nearing twice as much as "L" (well, +60% to be more accurate) at ~224MB/s compared to ~140MB/s of Lexar.
But, "L"s writing speed is ~100MB/s, which is about three-times higher than Samsung's ~34MB/s.
At least for me it does not make sense to have so high reading speed while sacrificing 3x writing speed. For regular work it's better have balanced read & write speeds.
TBH Samsung's 34MB/s is not bad for a cheap drive, and maybe fine for normal tasks (unless you're in a hurry :-D). Too bad Samsung didn't use the USB 3.1 bandwidth properly (probably due to cost factors). See the images for more detailed speed comparison. All tests were done on same PC, same port (and same conditions as much as possible).
Read speeds as advertised (see images) at around 300MB/s, write speeds around 50MB/s - great size/storage and a nice, premium feel. Gets warm but not too crazy hot.
The replacement car radio I wound up going with has a USB slot, so I got this to hold music for an upcoming (long) road trip. I fit almost all of my ripped music CD's, as well as my comedy CD's on this 32Gb thumb drive, with room to spare. I don't know if I should be amazed at its capacity, or depressed that 30+ years of collecting music could be reduced to this dinky little thing that I could misplace in a heartbeat. There's no retractable cover for the USB port, but I just leave it plugged in to the radio most of the time anyway. The size, color and appearance keep it from standing out, so theft hasn't been a problem so far, even in a convertible. The metal case is tough, and the shape gives me a firm grip when I do remove it from the radio.
Good:
- Unquestionably durable; not run-over-it-with-a-truck rugged I don't think, but for everyday use and abuse it should stand up to just about anything. If you plug it into a USB port and give it a good hard twist, you will likely break the jack before you damage this thing. I haven't tested the waterproof, X-ray-proof, etc. claims (yet,) but I'm confident it'll perform as advertised.
- I haven't seen 200MB/sec out of it yet but it's quite fast, fast enough to where I now have a second one for short-term backups, zipping directly to the drive.
- The integrated key ring loop is a nice touch; this won't be falling off my keys in restaurants and parking lots as did my last two flash drives.
Bad:
- The aforementioned key ring loop is a bit restrictive; it took some doing to get it to lie flat with my keys, and even now occasionally pokes me when I carelessly shove my keys into a pocket.
- No activity light. Minor shortcoming.
Ugly: Nothing. Rather cool looking, actually.
Bottom line: It costs a little more than the lesser-brand drives out there but only a little, and the added durability is worth it. Five stars.
:::Design:::
Beautifully crafted!!! It is about the same length but narrower than the SHIFT key of a MacBook Air. I got the silver one, so that it can hide scratches. The metal feels SOO good in hand!!! I love the design of this drive.
:::Speed:::
The most important question, right? Well, write speed is below average for a USB 3.1 drive in 2018. I got only 41 MB/s, which is about half of some microSD card. Yes, it might be a deal breaker for some. BUT! The read speed that I got from my MacBook Air is 301 MB/s!!! Which is INSANE! I never saw a flash with such read speed!!!
:::Verdict:::
Well, these days, you can get a 120GB SSD for $25 - $30 (you'll have to spend at least $7-$10 for enclosure), which will give you write & write speed of > 350 MB/s. But if you want something tiny & stylish, this flash drive a very good one.
I will definitely recommend this drive, if you don't mind sub 50 MB/s write speed.
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