Kingston 4GB DataTraveler Mini Fun Review

by Kevin O'Brien

The USB flash drive has to be one of the most popular computer accessories, with thousands of models that fit almost every design you could think of. You see some designed as switch-blades, others that are incredibly small and thin, and now we find one designed like a Lego. Kingston released the DataTraveler Mini Fun USB flash drive, ranging in sizes from 1GB to 4GB, as well as three color options depending on size.

The DataTraveler Mini Fun flash drive has the following features:

• Convenient: mini-sized for easy portability
• Stylish: available in multiple colors, based on capacity:
  • 1GB Yellow
  • 2GB Purple
  • 4GB Red
• Fun: preloaded with two games from BigFish Studios: Sudoku and Atlantis. Games require Windows Vista/2000/XP and DirectX 8.0
• Simple: just plug and play into a USB port
• Functional: cap stores securely on end of device to prevent loss
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 0.75" x 0.31" (38mm x 19mm x 8mm)
• Operating temperatures: 32° F to 140° F (0° C to 60° C)
• Storage temperatures: -4° F to 185° F (-20° C to 85° C)
• Compliant: designed to Hi-Speed USB 2.0 specifications
• Guaranteed: five-year warranty
• Compatibility: Win Vista, 2000, Win XP (SP1 and above), Mac OS 10.x, Linux Kernel 2.4 and above
• MSRP: $61

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Design

The Kingston DT Mini Fun USB flash drive has a sleek compact shape, with Lego-like male/female connectors on the top and bottom. That said, the DT Mini Fun cannot work with Legos ... which is a shame. This Lego-like design gives the USB cap a place to attach when the drive is in use, as well as letting you attach as many drives as possible in a row to impress coworkers. I figure you could get at least 20 of these flash drives connected before you would have structural stability problems.

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The bottom of the flash drive itself has a slot to hook a cord into, allowing you to secure the drive to your keychain to prevent it from being misplaced. With flash drives becoming incredibly small in this day and age, this simple feature can sometimes be overlooked.

Usability

Like the name implies, fun is mandatory with this Kingston flash drive. Two games are included on the drive itself, one being Atlantis (a colored ball matching game similar to Zuma), and the other is a Sudoku game. Both of these games require you to first install them on the computer, before you can play them, so it won’t work on locked down computers you commonly find in college labs. The games were pretty fun to kill time, and considering they were free with the drive you can’t really complain too much.

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The drive itself is very small if you don’t have the cap attached during use. When inserted into a USB slot, it only sticks out about 1cm or so. The drive is also thin enough to allow stacking of USB devices in dual port locations commonly found on notebooks or the back of desktops.

Performance

Read and write speeds were above average compared to other smaller USB flash drives we had in the office before this model. Although it was fast compared to our previous drives, it did not benchmark fast enough to qualify as a Readyboost drive for Vista. Below is an HDTune benchmark screenshot of this USB drive in action on my notebook.

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Conclusion

If you are in the market for a new USB flash drive, the Kingston DT Mini Fun flash drive is a choice worth considering. It gives you a great nostalgic touch with its Lego style design, and offers pretty good performance in a sleek package. The games included on the drive could be better (or work without installing them first), but at least they are free.

Pros

• Small design, thin enough to work next to other USB devices in cramped spots
• Fun shape

Cons

• Not fast enough for Vista ReadyBoost

 

Thanks for the review Kevin. It would actually be great if someone made an USB stick look exactly like a Lego brick. I would buy one for the nostalgia of it all

 

Nice review. I also like the Lego-like appearance.

I guess they replaced Magic Vines(it was included in the older 1GB version- see Esther's review) with Sudoku

 

Would be really nice if you can "add", "daisy chain" these up to add capacity.

ie. join 2 sticks together and you have 8gb..since these are so tiny, have 2 end to end, is no larger than a standard DT1/DT2 stick.

 

i'll trade you magic vines for sudoku.

 

Yes...they just have to enlarge the Lego-like connectors, but that makes the dimension of this drive to be bigger
One of the most popular USB disks in my country as it's very cheap and is ubiquitous

 

I have the 2 gb purple one and my people tell me the design is cute.

 

Hehe, I remember seeing my friend with this flash drive. Man, its tiny!

 

You want tiny? I'll give you tiny

http://www.dynamism.com/idisk-diamond/gallery.shtml

http://www.dynamism.com/pocket-bit-mini/gallery.shtml

http://www.itechnews.net/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/sony_pocket_mini.jpg

Sure, they don't have as much capacity, but tiny they are.

 

Well, if the only con of the stick is that it isn't good enough for ReadyBoost...I won't complain. ReadyBoost is worthless on a modern computer anyway, so consumers: do not worry about it.

 

A question that concerns basic USB flash drives in general: what is the best security option for a drive that is not formated with a hidden partition?

I have looked at http://www.truecrypt.org/ but found their product difficult to use, I also was not able to create a private folder as is possible with verbatim v-safe.

 

Free secure traveler download from Kingston site ... if you have a Data Traveler USB drive:

http://www.kingston.com/support/USBFLASHDRIVES/downloads/default.asp?s=dt2mst