Kingston, long a leader in the memory products marketplace, doubles down with their newest creation.
Way off in the distance, you can here a very quiet tinkling sound. That is the sound of Moore’s Law shattering. 2TB flash drives are here.
Back in 2013, Kingston brought the first ever 1TB flash drive into the world. While its exorbitant price made it an unreasonable purchase for the average consumer, we were still impressed that it was even possible. Now, Kingston has doubled down. Despite the fact that no other storage device makers have attempted to even match Kingston on its 1TB flash drive (the fakes on Amazon.com don’t count), the company has decided to break its own record by unveiling both the 1TB and 2TB DataTraveler Ultimate GT flash drives ahead of CES 2017 on Tuesday.
According to Kingston, the two new flash drives offer USB 3.1 Gen 1 performance, which should theoretically allow transfer speeds of up to 5Gbps in bursts. The reality is always not quite up to what it says on the engineering sheet, but that’s still fast enough to make a 2Tb flash drive usable. The new drives are built with a zinc-alloy metal casing for shock resistance and feature a similar (but sleeker) design to the DataTraveler HyperX Predator 512GB and 1TB flash drives introduced in 2013.
With 2TB of data, you can store up to 70 hours of 4K video, 96 average-sized PC games, 500,000 MP3 files and 256,000 24-megapixel photos. We don’t usually publish tech information like this – in fact this is the first time ever – but there is a table below that shows you just how massive a 2TB flash drive really is.In fact, Kingston has included a handy comparison chart within its press release, in case you want to see just how massive a 2TB flash drive really is.
This stuff is almost one of the calling cards of science fiction. Princess Leia had the plans to the Death Star on something about the size of a tea saucer – and remember 1995’s Johnny Mnemonic, where Keanu Reeves’ character had is brain hacked with a neural net and wiped his personal memories so he could store a whopping 80Gb of data? He could have saved himself a lot of pain by buying one of these tiny 128Gb flash drives for about $35 with shipping. Buy twenty, and there’s your 2TB for about $700, but it’s having it all on a single device that makes Kingston’s accomplishment so remarkable.
Both the 1TB and 2TB DataTraveler Ultimate GT flash drives will be available in February, but Kingston has yet to announce a price point. Kingston’s previous maximum effort, the 1TB flash drive, sells for a heart-stopping $2.7 thousand. It’s a sure bet that the new 2TB drives are going to be even pricier, probably in the $3000 range. Technology so expensive that what fits inside a walnut shell could cost more than a cheap used car is a daunting premise.
I mean, what if you lose it?
The drives will be back by a five-year warranty, and Kingston will offer free technical support. But I’d get damage and loss insurance on it if I were you.
Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate GT Features and Specifications:
- Capacities1: 1TB, 2TB
- Speed2: USB 3.1 Gen. 13
- Dimensions: 72mm x 26.94mm x 21mm
- Operating Temperature: -25°C to 60°C
- Storage Temperature: -40°C to 85°C
- Warranty: 5-year warranty with free technical support
- Compatible with: Windows® 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7 (SP1), Mac OS v.10.9.x+, Linux v.2.6.x+, Chrome OS™
| DataTraveler Ultimate GT Part Numbers | ||
| Part Number | Capacity | |
| DTUGT/1TB | 1TB | |
| DTUGT/2TB | 2TB | |
|
OS List |
USB 2.0 |
USB 3.0 / USB 3.1 |
||
| Windows 10 | Yes | Yes | ||
| Windows 8.1 | Yes | Yes | ||
| Windows 8 | Yes | Yes | ||
| Windows 7 (SP1) | Yes | Yes | ||
| Mac OS (v. 10.9.x +) | Yes | Yes | ||
| Linux (v. 2.6.x +) | Yes | Yes | ||
| Chrome | Yes | Yes | ||
|
Storage Chart |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Storage |
Photos (Compressed JPEG) | Video Recording2 | Storage Usage | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8MP | 12MP | 18MP | 24MP |
24 |
48 |
720p |
1080p |
4K |
HD |
Music .MP3 |
Compressed |
PC |
Backups | |||||||||||||||
| 4GB | 1500 | 1000 | 667 | 500 | 20 | 10 | 22 | 15 | 8 | X | 1038 | 3 | X | X | ||||||||||||||
| 8GB | 3000 | 2000 | 1333 | 1,000 | 40 | 20 | 44 | 30 | 16 | X | 2076 | 7 | X | X | ||||||||||||||
| 16GB | 6000 | 4000 | 2667 | 2,000 | 80 | 40 | 88 | 61 | 33 | 1 | 4151 | 14 | X | X | ||||||||||||||
| 32GB | 12000 | 8000 | 5333 | 4,000 | 160 | 80 | 176 | 122 | 66 | 2 | 8302 | 28 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| 64GB | 24000 | 16000 | 10667 | 8,000 | 320 | 160 | 260 | 244 | 132 | 5 | 16605 | 56 | 3 | 2 | ||||||||||||||
| 128GB | 48000 | 32000 | 21333 | 16,000 | 640 | 320 | 352 | 488 | 264 | 10 | 33209 | 112 | 6 | 4 | ||||||||||||||
| 256GB | 96000 | 64000 | 42667 | 32,000 | 1280 | 640 | 704 | 976 | 528 | 21 | 66418 | 224 | 12 | 9 | ||||||||||||||
| 512GB | 192000 | 128000 | 85334 | 64,000 | 2560 | 1280 | 1408 | 1952 | 1056 | 42 | 132836 | 448 | 24 | 17 | ||||||||||||||
| 1TB | 384000 | 256000 | 170668 | 128000 | 5120 | 2560 | 2816 | 3904 | 2112 | 83 | 265672 | 896 | 48 | 32 | ||||||||||||||
| 2TB | 768000 | 512000 | 341336 | 256000 | 10240 | 5120 | 5632 | 7808 | 4224 | 166 | 531344 | 1792 | 96 | 64 | ||||||||||||||
*Based on Flash Memory Storage Chart
1Some of the listed capacity on a Flash storage device is used for formatting and other functions and thus is not available for data storage. As such, the actual available capacity for data storage is less than what is listed on the products. For more information, go to Kingston’s Flash Guide at kingston.com/flash_memory_guide.
2Speed may vary due to host hardware, software and usage.
3USB 3.1 Gen 1 performance requires a host device with a USB 3.0 or 3.1 port.
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