USB 3.1 has been around for quite a while but it’s almost impossible for us to get our hands on a USB 3.1 device due to its low availability on the market. Kingston Technology is among the first few companies that introduces the USB 3.1 standards for their products, the Kingston DataTraveler microDuo 3C USB 3.1 Type-C Flash Drive we have here is one of ’em.
Our first look on the Kingston DataTraveler microDuo 3C USB 3.1 Type-C, it looks like your ordinary ultra small USB flash drive with a semi-translucent cover.Â
From the other side of it you’ll see the USB 3.1 Type-C header hidden under the semi-translucent cap.
If you haven’t see a USB 3.1 Type-C header before, here how it looks like. Just like the Apple Lightning cable, this new connector comes not only faster than your ordinary USB 3.0 connector but also as a permanent solution for the orientation issue that we all face for years.
The other side of it will be your ordinary looking USB 3.1 connector aka USB 3.1 Type-A, just in case that your motherboard doesn’t comes with a USB 3.1 Type-C port.
As for the size, the Kingston DataTraveler microDuo 3C USB 3.1 Type-C flash drive is as small as you can imagine. Here’s a comparison in size, side by side with a CMOS battery which can be found on your motherboard.
Performance Test
We did a quick synthetic benchmark with the ATTO Disk Benchmark, the most frequently used benchmarking utility by many manufacturers for performance specification. We’re getting a pretty decent 120MB/s read and 45MB/s write in average on both sides Type-A and Type-C.
 So what’s the big deal? The 120MB/s read bottleneck that is. We’ve done the same ATTO Disk Benchmark test with a Corsair Flash Voyager GO USB 3.0 flash drive and it’s clearly seen that it can never get pass that 120MB/s read speed as what we’ve observed on the Kingston DataTraveler microDuo 3C USB 3.1 Type-C flash drive.
Final Thoughts
The difference in performance isn’t that significant but let’s look at this from another angle – what you’d actually get aside of the extra 120MB/s read speed breakthrough is the all new USB 3.1 Type-C header that solves the orientation issue that has been haunting pretty much everyone of us for the past decades.
At the price of RM68 for the 32GB model from Lazada, we don’t see why you shouldn’t get this if you already have a device or motherboard which comes with support for USB 3.1 Type-C.
