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Corsair Flash Voyager (16GB) review: Corsair Flash Voyager (16GB)

Corsair's ruggedised stick just got bigger.

Craig Simms Special to CNET News

Craig was sucked into the endless vortex of tech at an early age, only to be spat back out babbling things like "phase-locked-loop crystal oscillators!". Mostly this receives a pat on the head from the listener, followed closely by a question about what laptop they should buy.

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Craig Simms

Nov. 11, 2007 9:00 p.m. PT

2 min read

Corsair has been doing the Voyager series for a while now. There are even GT editions that offer a speed boost for those reliant on fast transfers, but come at a huge premium. While the 1GB, 2GB, 4GB and 8GB sticks have been available for some time, the latest in the line brings the capacity up to 16GB, and a 32GB shouldn't be too far away on these shores.

9.0

Corsair Flash Voyager (16GB)

The Good

Will withstand normal drops and knocks. Fast transfer speed. Huge capacity.

The Bad

Lid can be easily lost.

The Bottom Line

Corsair's memory stick is one of the best on the market.

Design/Features
The Voyager is encased in rubber, making it highly resilient to drops. It has a loop at the end so it can be attached to the included lanyard, and an LED underneath this lights up blue when the flash drive is accessed. A design fault that remains from earlier iterations is the unsecured lid -- once removed to use the drive, it is unattached to either stick or lanyard, meaning that it can be lost easily.

An extension USB cable is included, as is the encryption software "TrueCrypt", which is capable of creating an entire virtual encrypted disk should you be carting sensitive information about. Corsair also bundles in an insane 10-year warranty, so confidence is high that this stick will last some time.

Performance
Corsair's sticks are typically fast, the Flash Voyager turning in a respectable 24.5MB/s read speed. We threw it about a bit to test its ruggedised coating as well, and it survived quite easily, although tended to bounce unpredictably like a football due to its shape. Best of all, despite the huge increase in build quality from normal flash drives, the Flash Voyager is still very competitively priced.