Conclusion

The concept behind the 2GB Corsair Padlock USB 2.0 Memory Drive is a decent one. I appreciate the fact that the drive has an auto-locking mechanism, so you don’t have to worry about locking the drive each time you finish using it. For people who have a tendency to forget things, Corsair offers a service wherein you can store your PIN online for later retrieval. This is handy, but obviously a security risk. Without it, you may be lost to your data forever though.

The data transfer performance was decent, but the write speed was quite poor. Read speeds are up to snuff. This is an unfortunate shortcoming that Corsair could have easily addressed. I’m also not a big fan, no pun intended, of the relatively large form factor. A more compact solution would have been appreciated, but the keys are already pretty small. Perhaps a virtual keypad that appears upon USB connection would work.

In the end, the extra size and the poor write speed are not enough to compensate for the security offered by the PIN mechanism. The Corsair Padlock is okay, but far from great.

Pros

• Easy to use, secure
• Auto-locking mechanism is handy
• Free USB extension cable a bonus

Cons

• Relatively large form factor
• Cheap feel to casing, overall appearance
• Write speed is poor
• May be difficult to insert next to other USB peripherals

Overall Rating: 6.0 /10.0

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