Earlier this month, Futurelooks reviewed the Corsair Voyager 32GB USB Flash drive, a drive that uses a special rubber casing to allow it to absorb impact and protect it from the elements. The Voyager has been around since 2005 and during our first review, we gave it a pretty good beating by dropping it and submerging it in water. Now that we’re in 2008, the trend is to throw massive storage into tiny casings. As a result of this, some people could be holding their whole lives in these little things. In order to give people the assurance that they need to continue toting around their stuff in flash drives, Corsair came out with their Survivor line of Ultra Rugged drives which takes durability to a whole new level.
The Corsair Survivor 32GB Ultra Rugged USB 2.0 Flash Drive takes off where the Voyager leaves us, and gives us an even higher level of durability. The new casing is now manufacturered from CNC-milled, anodized aircraft-grade aluminum casing that is water resistant to 200M through the use of a EPDM waterproof seal. It is also protected from vibration or impact damage through the use of a molded shock dampening collar. The Survivor is available in sizes from 4GB – 32GB (as tested) and also comes in a GT version up to 16GB’s that supports faster transfer speeds than the vanilla Survivor.
The Survivor also comes with Encryption Software (Windows Only) called True Crypt that supports 256-AES encryption. Mac users will have to look somewhere else for their Encryption Software. The drive is compatible with both USB 2.0 and 1.1 and is backed by a 10 year warranty.
What’s in the Box?
Inside the package, we are greeted by a USB extension cable and a set of dog tags. Yes, dog tags. In my humble opinion, this is a dog of an accessory. This makes me sort of miss that cheesy lanyard that they gave us with the Voyager series. Apparently, you hang the Survivor around your neck with these tags to look cool. I don’t think so. I would have rather seen Corsair figure out an ingenious way to attach the cap to the drive so we don’t loose it.
First Impressions
The Survivor is truly a precision machined device. I knew this right away when I uncrewed the two pieces, and then screwed them back together again. This is significant because no matter how many times I did this, the two end pieces with the hole lined up perfectly with eachother. Opening it up reviews the O-ring and the flash drive body itself. It is this full body armour that gives the Survivor its “survival instincts” so to speak. This is also where my criticism of the dog tags over a viable tethering system is justified: If the covering is ever misplaced, the Survivor immediately loses all of its ruggedness. Although we all try to be careful, this stuff just goes missing and I wish Corsair would address this.
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The Moment You’re All Been Waiting For
No, we are not doing benchmarks…yet. Instead, we’re going to start a freak show of tests that no ordinary USB flash drive could survive. Let the games begin!
The Submersion Test
First thing we did was test if it was really waterproof. We stuck the drive in a bowl of water and left it overnight. It gets better…
The Freezing Test
Next, we froze the drive in the freezer. We didn’t open the drive to see if it was waterlogged, we just shoved it in there with our frozen meats and let it freeze overnight.
The Boiling Test
It would be so easy to just slam it on the pavement and watch the Survivor escape from its icy grave. No sir! What we did was far more sinister! We stuck the block of ice with the drive inside and boiled it out of its grave. From extreme cold to extreme heat! This also caused some of the decals to peel. Whoops!
The Getting Run Over By a Car Twice Test
Finally, we ran over with the car. Yes, you heard me. We ran over it with a car, not once, but twice, just to make sure we were being as evil as possible to it. Any bets on whether it survived? If you’re not a betting man, then flip the page for the conclusion!
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Performance
So we did some bad things to this drive and now, we’re going to test its performance. The question is, will it even turn on? Or better yet, will we even be able to unscrew it from the casing?
Despite being subjected to horribly punishing conditions, and struggling with the tight lid, the Corsair Survivor seemed physically intact. Based on some reasonable numbers, it looks like the drive is also internally well also. Performance highlights include a 2.7ms access time and a 22.7 MB/s max transfer speed. CPU usage was a reasonable (for USB) 12%. This is consistent with the results we got with the Corsair Voyager 32GB drive reviewed earlier, but that isn’t horribly surprising seeing as both drives are the same on the inside.
Final Thoughts
There is no doubt in my mind that the Corsair Survivor 32GB Ultra Rugged USB 2.0 Flash Drive is one tough mother. After enduring things that a regular USB drive would have disintegrated in, it’s safe to say that the Corsair Survivor is really a survivor. This machined chunk of ruggedness is not only sturdy, but the quality of the workmanship is superb. I was surprised to see how perfectly the machining made the two ends line up every time we screwed and unscrewed the barrel. Performance is also fairly decent, but gets faster once you upgrade to the Survivor GT Version if you require speed over storage capacity. While the drive has some noted benefits, it also has some things that I would like to see addressed.
The Corsair Survivor relies heavily on the screw on casing to give it the survival instincts that it has shown us today. If for any reason, the cap were to go missing, this drive would become Clark Kent and no more special than any other environmentally sensitive USB flash drive. Corsair should be thinking about some way to make sure that cap and drive never leaves eachother’s side. Instead of thinking about this, they chucked some useless Corsair branded dog tags into the box and called it a day. It is even cheesier than the lanyard they give us with the Voyagers. As Russel Peters says “Do the right thing” and give us some reassurance that these two pieces never lose eachother.
Despite my grievance regarding the cap (and useless dog tags), the Corsair Survivor really sets the bar for other drives to follow. Despite the dishing that I gave it, the Survivor survived and lived to tell about it. Backed up by a 10 year warranty, and you have all the reassurance you need to trust your valuable data to it. Just NEVER lose the cap.
Pros
- Tough as a hammer!
- Reasonable data transfer performance.
- 10 year warranty.
- Remarkably well made and very high quality.
Cons
- Lose that cap, and this bagel is toast.
- Dog tags? What’s wrong with you guys!
Overall Rating: 9.0 / 10.0
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