2009-11-01 - PNY Attache Original 16GB

PNYs new Attache Original drive comes in a range of capacities and is broadly similar to the model it replaces, but the new drives are 33% smaller than the old ones. The main plastic body has also now a bright transparent colour, specific to the capacity of the drive (red for 16GB, blue for 8GB, prplr for 4GB and green for the monster that is the 32GB drive).

One thing which has apsolutely no impact on the performance but nonetheless, disappointed us slightly is that the graphicvs are actually a sticker, not an issue for many but over time it has begun to peel at the edges.

PNY were one of the first manufacturers to use the swivel and slide design to stow the USB connector on thumb drives. One of the biggest issues, and a personal bug-bear of ours, with USB Flash Drives is reliability degrading due to fluff in the connector or damage due to it being exposed, and caps are often lost or broken quickly so we are big fans of the PNY approach.

The main body has a nice solid feel to it, even though it is plastic, and it packs away nice and small, you certainly won't be complaining about it getting in the way or feeling awkward in a pocket. There is the obligatory lanyard loop at one end too.

The PNY Attache Original 16GB puts in some mixed performance results, the read speeds are right up there with the faster USB Flash Drives on the market, but write speeds were a little disappointing. Using large media files, sustained read speeds were well up in the high 20MB/sec, low 30MB/sec area, but write speeds hovered in the 10MB/sec to 15MB/sec zone, not slow, but a little less than we have come to expect from new drives form the major manufacturers. The good news is that it is faster in every respect than the old PNY Attache that it replaces.

The big winner for the PNY Attache Original is the price, it is consistently cheaper at most retailers than other drives of the same capacity, but it doesn't feel or perform like a cheap drive. All in all, it is somewhat of a bargain!