007 Micro Vault 1GB USB Flash Drive Review

"The name is Bond. James Bond."  from James Bond movie Casino Royale  2006. 
Have you ever wanted to say that and mean it? Perhaps you can with the Sony 007 1GB Micro Vault Flash Drive in your hand. This special edition drive is adorned with the 007 logo and is sure to stand out in the ever-growing crowd of memory keys that try to look unique.

The Exterior

The 007 Micro Vault is designed to look good above all things. Its shiny, deep black surface is  polished and exceptionally smooth to the touch, and contrasts sharply with the bright reflective silver edge piece. On the top, the Sony logo is engraved in the left side, the white 007 badge is stamped smack in the middle, and the sky blue 1GB capacity designation is in large print on the right. The blue color is pleasing to the eye and gives the drive a sophisticated look.
 

The side of the drive is fluted and elegant; despite the apparent texture visible in the picture, it feels smooth. The fluted side makes the drive easy to hold with two fingers. The drive is constructed out of a solid-feeling plastic and feels expensive. The 007 Micro Drive is a featherweight, and picking it up feels like you are carrying nothing.

The back of the drive is exactly the same as the front, except with different logos/writing.

In order to reveal the USB connector, a small switch on the side of the drive must be gently pressed in and moved forward or back to extend/retract it. The connector is locked into position once it is fully extended/retracted. This feature is convenient because there is no annoying cap to keep track of – it is all contained in one device.

The activity light is located in the center of the switch and lights up a soft green when writing or accessing data; that is the only time it is on. The activity light does not stay on as it does with some drives. This is a good design feature, because James Bond needs to be stealthy.

Complaints about the exterior? Yes, I have two. For starters, the shiny finish attracts fingerprints and dust with incredible ease; be sure to have a microfiber cloth handy so you can clean it up and show it off. That leads into my second gripe – durability. If there is anything this drive lacks, it is durability.  The finish feels as if it can scratch with little more than a brush against a sharp or rough object. This is not, I repeat, is not a drive you will want to casually toss into your laptop bag or shove in your pocket. This drive needs special treatment and should be wrapped in some sort of soft cloth. And by “soft cloth,” I do not mean a paper towel – touching this drive with one of those is a sin and would probably scratch it , although I am certainly not going to test that out.

The Interior

As the title of the review says, 007 Micro Vault's capacity is 1GB. 1GB is generally enough for most people; it holds more than one CD does. The one aspect of this drive that annoys me to no end is that it is exceptionally slow when transferring data (both reading and writing). It took nearly 30 seconds to transfer 10.1MB worth of .jpg pictures; I originally started to transfer 350MB of data, but gave up after a few minutes. In comparison to my OCZ Rally 1GB flash drive, the 007 Micro Vault  is over ten times slower, because it took slightly less than three seconds to transfer the exact same .jpg files to it. I formatted the drive and tried it on three different modern computers with the same result.

In a hypothetical James Bond situation, this would be a life-threatening problem – infiltrating a high security building is hard enough, but remaining hidden while the slow 007 flash drive transfers mission-critical data from an enemy's computer would be even harder. There would be a high probability that Bond would be discovered before he finished.

Of course for the rest of us, it is simply an issue that requires patience. The drive works fine, but it is without a doubt slow.

Drive Content

This drive was released in the spirit of the upcoming James Bond movie, Casino Royale (in theaters November 17th), and the 007 Micro Vault comes preloaded with exclusive content. The exclusive content consists of a high-resolution movie trailer and four different wallpapers. The wallpapers come in both 1920x1080 (1080i) and 1920x1200 resolutions. Unfortunately, not enough of the content is devoted to Bond girls.

There is one program included on the drive, Virtual Expander. According to the ReadMe file, the Micro Vault Virtual Expander allows you to compress files by simply dragging and dropping files onto the drive, which allows you to expand capacity by up to 3X. When compressed files are taken off the drive, they are automatically decompressed.

Price

James Bond does not carry around cheap gadgets (although sometimes he treats them as such), and this 007 drive is no exception – it retails for an amazing $54.99, and is only available through Sony. That is not exactly a bargain, considering 1GB drives can be had for less than $20 in this day and age. I paid a hefty $64.12 for the drive after shipping ($5.50) and tax (6% in Pennsylvania, so $3.63). Overpriced? Yes, but where else do you intend to find a 007 flash drive?

Conclusion

The Sony 007 Micro Vault definitely carries a “cool” factor, and is guaranteed to be a stand out. The primary reason to buy this drive is obviously for the 007 logo, and that is the only real reason to consider this drive. It has notable shortcomings, including a fragile finish and slow data transfer rate. Overall, this drive is designed for show. The 007 Micro Vault certainly has its audience, but for those looking for more practical means of storage, I encourage you to take a look at some of Sony's other flash drives.

“Now, 007, do try to return this equipment in pristine condition.”

-Q, “Everything or Nothing”

Shaken:

• Beautiful, attractive exterior
• Retractable USB connector
• Lightweight
• Preloaded content

Stirred:

• Easily attracts fingerprints/dust
• Fragile/not durable
• Slow data transfer rates