A closer look
The pen-drive is finished in a very attractive aluminium casing that will withstand a knock or two. Measuring 70mm by 27mm and weighing 22g with the cap, it's also larger than most other drives, and we can put that down to fitting 128GBs of NAND on to a PCB.
Difficult to see here, a small red LED flashes when the drive is reading or writing, and we like the fact that it's unobtrusive.
We favour cap-less drives whose connector can be retracted when not in use; that way you don't lose it. Patriot, however, goes with a traditional cap that makes a satisfying click when attached. The last thing you want to do is damage the connector on a near-£300 drive, right?
The drive doesn't carry any additional features. We'd be inclined to add in hardware-based encryption or, perhaps, a USB dock with this particular model. What's another £15 when spending £300?
You'll need to use the supplied USB extension cable if attaching it to most case-mounted ports because the Xporter Magnum is wider than most smaller-capacity drives. As you can see from the above picture, it blocks off the right-hand USB port. The lanyard fits around the section at the bottom of the drive.
Here it is next to some other storage. Note how small the Corsair Voyager Mini looks in comparison. Small it may be, but the capacity is significantly smaller too. Looking around the web for specifications on upcoming 128GB pen-drives from the competition it seems as if Patriot's will be one of the smaller ones.
Further specifications here
