US-based storage specialist Kanguru has launched the product for Flash disk fans who are unhappy with the weenie capacity most USB drives offer: a memory key with a whopping 64GB of storage capacity. The downside? It'll cost you rather more than your computer probably did.

Yes, the Kanguru Flash Drive Max (http://www.kanguru.com/flashdrive_max.html?www.reghardware.co.uk) can be yours for a mere $2,800 with five cents change (£1,597/€2,282). For which you could alternatively buy three 320GB LaCie Little Big Drive units (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/02/17/review_lacie_little_big_drive_200gb/) and walk away with $400 in change, though the latter product's a long way from the Flash Drive Max's ultra-portable 18g weight and 9.2 x 2.5 x 1.5cm casing.

Kanguru's new drive contains "top grade" NAND Flash chips - with a guaranteed ten-year data retention perio dand also ships with an aluminium shell for extra physical protection.

The drive works best over a USB 2.0 connection, but it will connect to USB 1.1 ports too. Kanguru quotes a read speed of up to 9MBps and a write speed of up to 5MBps. The drive is compatible with any USB Mass Storage-supporting operating system, but the bundled password-protection software runs on Windows only.

If the 64GB drive is too darned expensive, Kanguru is offering a 32GB version for $1,500 and a 16GB model for a mere $800. The latter is available now; the 32GB and 64GB models are set to ship on 15 April. ®

Related reviews

Fingerprint-reading Flash drives (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/04/06/roundup_biometric_usb_flash_drive/)
LaCie Skwarim 30GB pocket hard drive (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/03/23/review_lacie_skwarim_30gb/)
LaCie Rugged 80GB portable hard drive (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/03/07/review_lacie_rugged/)
Western Digital Raptor X 150GB HDD (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/03/21/review_western_digital_raptor_x/)
LaCie Two Big 1TB eSATA drive (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/03/10/review_lacie_two_big/)
LaCie Little Big Disk 200GB (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/02/17/review_lacie_little_big_drive_200gb/)

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