Performance and thoughts
| Average read speed | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corsair Voyager Mini 8GB | SanDisk Ultra II 2GB | PNY Flash 512MB | Corsair Voyager 8GB | Kingston SDHC 32GB |
| 30.32 | 9.36 | 12.62 | 31.78 | 15.26 |
Whilst the benchmark number for the Corsair Voyager Mini is thoroughly decent, we ran into a couple of cases where transfer speeds weren't as smooth as expected. Formal measurements show that, on occasion, read speeds had a propensity to drop-off.
Hand-timing a 1GB file transfer to a 500GB Seagate hard drive showed rates varying between 16MB/s and 24MB/s.
| Average write speed | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corsair Voyager Mini 8GB | SanDisk Ultra II 2GB | PNY Flash 512MB | Corsair Voyager 8GB | Kingston SDHC 32GB |
| 12.07 | 7.02 | 3.97 | 20.12 | 10.63 |
Write speeds were found to be more consistent, however, averaging around 12MB/s through a synthetic test and around 9MB/s when hand-timed.
The drive took a while to initialise any transfers - up to 10 seconds on three different systems - and that 'problem' was not observed on the other flash-based media in the test.
| Random access time | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corsair Voyager Mini 8GB | SanDisk Ultra II 2GB | PNY Flash 512MB | Corsair Voyager 8GB | Kingston SDHC 32GB |
| 0.5 | 1.8 | 3.9 | 1.1 | 1.7 |
Random access latency is rather good, as expected from a flash drive.
Torture testing
The sample survived a two-minute test in room-temperature and near-boiling water, as well as being dropped from shoulder height on to concrete; the rubberised housing proving its worth. We took pity on the drive and didn't subject it to Wedge Of Doom.
Final thoughts
Corsair Voyager Mini isn't the fastest 8GB USB pendrive around, neither is it the smallest. Performance is, on the whole, respectable, enabling you to fill up the 8GB capacity in around 15 minutes.
So if you want a rather small, reasonably speedy, knock-resistant drive with the ubiquitous USB connector, the Voyager Mini is certainly worth considering, especially when the 8GB model ships at under £20, including VAT.
Just be careful you don't lose it in a back pocket; it really is that small!
HEXUS Awards
Corsair Flash Voyager Mini 8GB
HEXUS Where2Buy
The 8GB drive can be bought for £20.99 at CCL Online.
HEXUS Right2Reply
At HEXUS.net, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any Corsair representatives choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.
