Review: Swiss Army Swiss Flash 8gb (Page 1 of 1)
Written by
Steve Lake
Posted on: Aug 26, 2009 at 01:36pm
Section:
Hardware
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When most people think of Swiss Army, they think of all the cool knives they have to offer. In fact, the term "Swiss Army" has become synonymous with anything that lends itself to be extremely versatile and multi-featured.
But what do you do if you're a computer user and you need something with the versatility and features of a Swiss Army knife, as well as a pen drive? Well, the simple answer is, you get a Swiss Army Flash drive.
Now right away you're thinking, "So what? Swiss Army made a flash drive. Big deal." Not so fast. This is Swiss Army we're talking about. They don't make "just a flash drive". They make a multi-purpose tool that just happens to also be a flash drive.
The Swiss Flash comes in 3 styles, each of which comes with an alternative "flight safe" version for those of you who want to take your Swiss Flash with you on your next flight, but don't want the TSA throwing a fit and confiscating it.
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| Knife w/Flashlight | Knife w/Laser | Knife w/Metal Cover |
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| Flight w/Flashlight | Flight w/Laser | Flight w/Metal Cover |
Each Swiss Flash is also available in 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16gb sizes, so you'll have plenty of options to choose from. Each regular unit in all three models comes with a 2" utility knife, a nail file, and a 2” pair of folding scissors, plus a removable flash drive in a size of your choosing. Two of the three models come with either a flash light or a laser pointer. The Alox version comes with neither.
The “flight safe” alternative of each of the 3 models only comes with the included flash drive, the ink pen, and either a laser pointer or a flash light, depending on the model. The Alox Flight Safe version comes with only the flash drive, and nothing else.
The units themselves sell for anywhere from $33 up to $150. Alright, sure they're a little expensive. But this is Swiss Army we're talking about. They don't make "cheap". They make good quality stuff, and quality costs money. So if you want quality, you pay for quality. And yes, there are a few things that are high quality and cheap, but they're the exception, not the rule.
And if you're worried about what will become of your Swiss Army Flash should the flash drive ever quit, the plastic clip arm breaks, or you ever remove and misplace the drive at any point, you can get a replacement for a small fee right from Swiss Army. Of course, if you don't want to replace the drive, you can just continue using the unit without the pen drive as just a normal pocket utility knife. So the Swiss Flash has a life long beyond the death or loss of the included flash drive.
By now you're likely asking, "Ok, that's all pretty cool, but what about the flash drive?" Well, that's a great question. First off, the included flash drive comes in a hardened plastic transparent case that protects it from damage and allows you a really cool, geeky view of the included guts of the drive.
It comes with a standard write protect switch on the side of the drive and is designed to snap out if need be for easy use separate from the metal outer body of the pocket knife. For this review I have an 8gb flash version I'm working with, although it won't matter which size flash drive you have since they're all identical, save for the total storage space.
The drive itself is fully compatible with all versions of Linux, as it is both bootable, and readable by Linux, since it presents itself using the generic “Mass Storage Controller” standard. So that makes the drive entirely plug and play, regardless of the distribution.
The end of the pen knife has a small plastic, flip up holder, also made of high durability plastic, that protects the USB tip when the drive is stored away, and also acts as a lever to give the drive a little nudge out of the body when you're ready to flip it out for use. The flash drive itself is designed for use with a usb2.0 port.
The drive is formatted by default with a fat32 file system, however it works just fine with ext3 or any other standard file system of your choice. Heck, it'll even happily take ReiserFS if you want it to. So how is the file copy speed? Well, small file write speed varies from 500kbps to 4.5mb, and tends to be a bit variable as it writes to the drive, depending on the file size. Average write speed over my 366mb test block was 3.66mb per second. Read speed for small files was about 26.5mbps, which is a far cry from the write speed. Delete speed for small files was about 2.5 seconds for the entire 366mb, or about 30 files per second. Average test file size ranged from 1.5mb to 10mb.
Large file write speed, using a 947mb test file was 4.1 mbps with speeds being slightly variable and ranging from 3.8 to 4.6 during brief data bursts. Read speed topped out at 26.5mbps again, just like with the small files, so I suspect that it can go a lot faster than what I am able to achieve, as I am likely experiencing a bottleneck in the read speed test due to the limitations of my hardware, and thus it was unable to reach its full potential during testing. Delete speed was too fast to record.
In general, given the average write speed of the drive, you're looking at this being a 26x class 2 drive. While not blazing fast, it's satisfactory for a lot of applications. And given the read speed of the drive, it's a decent trade off. Typically you won't have to write too often to the drive, but you will read from it quite a lot. So a 4x write speed is an acceptable speed overall.
Long run durability was tested using a drive burn in tool, and the drive performed exceptionally. It did not collapse, did not develop bad sectors and it did not suffer any read/write errors along the way. I also went an extra step further and tested it with an actual full blown pen drive Linux install (Geexbox and Mint) and both distros ran very well from the pen drive. Again, the slow write speed made some activities a bit slow, but the lightning fast read speed actually make the speed of the processor and ram the limiting factor. Well, that and the speed of my usb2.0 bus.
And lastly, but not least, I figure I'll give the included tools a quick look over since they're also part of the package. (The following 3 items are only available on the “standard” models, not the "flight safe" ones) The included knife is made of high durability stainless steel and is incredibly sharp (sharp enough to split paper edgewise with little trouble), and appears to be able to take a fair amount of abuse without any risk of damage. The nail file is...well, a nail file. It's good enough for what it does, is also made of high durability stainless steel, and the tip is shaped just right to act as an improvised screwdriver should you need it.
The included scissors aren't very big, and are a bit clumsy to work with, but they're sharp and do the job they were designed for. The next three items will have selective availability, depending on which model of Swiss Flash you get. The included flashlight that comes with the first of the 3 models of Swish Flash is a small, pen battery powered white LED.
It's activated with, get this, a little pressure applied to the Swiss Army logo on the top face. Cute, eh?
It's got plenty of power for close up applications, but it can also be used to light up a small room if the situation presents itself where you need to find your way across the kitchen in a power outage or some other zero light situation. The battery can also be easily replaced. Just push a small paperclip or other narrow object into a small hole on side of the face, and the battery pops out the other for easy replacement.
The included pen, available in two of the three models (the flashlight and laser models) is a short tip pen that is a pressurized, and fully sealed metal tube that is also replaceable. So if you somehow write enough that you use it all up, you can pull it out of its container and snap a new one in. Replacements can be bought through Swiss Army. Normally it's retracted into the lower face of the body, but a little push with the plastic actuator on the side will extend it for use.
I don't like the fact that this actuator feels like a cheap plastic insert, and will likely break fairly easily at some point, but it works for what it does. You may find though that it doesn't last long for you. As for actually using the pen to write with, it's a bit clumsy to work with, but does its job in a pinch if you have nothing else to write with at the time.
The laser pointer, included with only one model, was not tested in this review, since my test unit only had the flashlight, and not the laser. So I can't say how well it works, but I suspect that, like other high quality Swiss Army stuff, it's just as easy to use, and the battery is just as easy to change.
Overall, I loved my Swiss Flash. It's just geeky enough to catch my interest, dependable enough to get my trust, and performs well enough to get my approval for daily use. And yes, it's a bit expensive, as discussed above. However, I think you'll find that it's well worth the price tag, knowing that it's more than just a pen drive, and knowing that it carries the guarantee of quality that Swiss Army puts into all their products.
For more information, or to view all available models,
check out the Swiss Flash Info Page at SwissArmy.com.
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