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

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.