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Patriot Supersonic Boost XT (32GB) review: Patriot Supersonic Boost XT (32GB)

If you're on a budget and need something a little more rugged than usual, the Boost XT might pique your fancy. Else, we suggest you stick to the standard ol' Supersonic.

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
2 min read

In the world of USB sticks, USB 3.0 ain't necessarily USB 3.0.

6.5

Patriot Supersonic Boost XT (32GB)

The Good

Will survive a few more knocks than usual. Manages to not be too bulky.

The Bad

Write speeds are disappointing. If you don't need the ruggedness, there's better performance to be had for the same price.

The Bottom Line

If you're on a budget and need something a little more rugged than usual, the Boost XT might pique your fancy. Else we suggest you stick to the standard ol' Supersonic.

Sure, they'll inevitably give you more speed than what a USB 2.0 stick would, provided you stick it in the right port — but so much relies on the type of memory used and its configuration. None will deliver the promised 5Gbps speed, but the variance is quite large. As general guidance, the more expensive sticks do perform considerably better.

Patriot's Supersonic Boost XT is a rubberised, water-resistant USB flash drive, with a detachable lid and a red activity light. Our review sample, weighing in at 32GB, currently sells online for around AU$50. It's regular USB stick size and doesn't get in the way of other ports when you plug it in.

As a point of comparison, Patriot's own Supersonic Magnum costs AU$129 in its 64GB size, and is roughly one and a half times the width of a standard stick. The correlation between price, physical size, capacity and performance is interesting when we boot up CrystalDiskMark for testing.

Sequential reads (in MBps)

  • 293.3
    Patriot Supersonic Magnum (64GB)
  • 250.2
    Kingston HyperX DataTraveler 3.0 (64GB)
  • 129.0
    Patriot Supersonic (32GB)
  • 89.26
    Patriot Supersonic Boost XT (32GB)

(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Sequential writes (in MBps)

  • 173.8
    Patriot Supersonic Magnum (64GB)
  • 77
    Patriot Supersonic (32GB)
  • 57.76
    Kingston HyperX DataTraveler 3.0 (64GB)
  • 31
    Patriot Supersonic Boost XT (32GB)

(Longer bars indicate better performance)

4K random reads (in MBps)

  • 8.08
    Patriot Supersonic Magnum (64GB)
  • 7.50
    Patriot Supersonic (32GB)
  • 6.33
    Kingston HyperX DataTraveler 3.0 (64GB)
  • 3.48
    Patriot Supersonic Boost XT (32GB)

(Longer bars indicate better performance)

4K random writes (in MBps)

  • 0.31
    Patriot Supersonic Magnum (64GB)
  • 0.30
    Patriot Supersonic (32GB)
  • 0.11
    Kingston HyperX DataTraveler 3.0 (64GB)
  • 0.02
    Patriot Supersonic Boost XT (32GB)

(Longer bars indicate better performance)


If anything, the results show just how competent a performer the original Supersonic is, especially when it comes to writes. While Kingston's big daddy Hyper X DataTraveler does well on the sequential reads, it doesn't do so great on everything else, leaving the powerful Magnum to sweep the field.

For around three times the performance of USB 2.0 and for about double the price, the Supersonic Boost XT does okay — however, it's clear that you're paying for the rubberising and water-proofing here, and not the performance.

If you're on a budget and need something a little more rugged than usual, the Boost XT might pique your fancy. Else, we suggest you stick to the standard ol' Supersonic.