USB drives

Store it in your pocket. PC Authority takes fifteen USB drives for a spin around the block.

Ever-increasing capacities, plummeting prices, super-charged speeds -they're the kind of things we've come to associate with computing, but with USB drives it's not just technology for technology's sake. Those bigger capacities and higher speeds mean you can now take all your important documents with you wherever you go and near-instantly transport them onto a new PC while the low prices ensure anyone can afford them.

In fact, these tiny drives are part of a quiet revolution that might one day be heralded as of equal importance to the mobile phone. Maybe. Anyone who's serious about computing now carries a small drive somewhere about their person. On it, you'll find all their vital files: photos, reports, MP3s, presentations, a draft of their novel. It will all be there.

The technology that has enabled those fast speeds is USB 2.0, with the majority of new drives embracing this as standard. We sourced fifteen of the most alluring USB 2.0 drives we could find, with capacities ranging from 64MB right up to a monstrous 1.5GB.

Not all the drives we tested were born the same. Several of these drives also include applications to encrypt your data and keep it synchronised with your main PC, with Lexar going one better by allowing you to browse the web without leaving a trace on the host PC. In just the same anonymous way, you can transport your email and POP3 settings, so you can plug it into any PC equipped with Outlook Express and collect and send your mail.

We weren't content with just printing a group test of the latest drives. With a USB drive in your pocket, you've got enough technology to use it as your primary filing system, backing it up to your PC hard disk for security. Doing this it's possible to build a complete document storage and communication system that you can just plug into a PC wherever you happen to be.

It's easy, neat, and much lighter to carry than a laptop.