At first glance, buying a USB flash drive for a computer can not cause any problems, but this is not entirely true. Not only its service life, but also its data transfer speed depends on what characteristics a flash drive has. In today's review, I would like to talk in detail about one very interesting model from Transcend - Jetflash 780. As part of the review, we will not only tell about the specifications of the device, but also check it in work, and also get acquainted with the current price and reviews.
Description
The Transcend Jetflash 780 USB Drive is far from a new device on the market. This flash drive began to be released back in 2013, and quite successfully continues to this day. The popularity of the model came quite quickly and not at all because the company is famous or the device is made using some latest technologies, no. Success came thanks to pricing and a variety of modifications. USB-flash-drive sold at an affordable price and offered the consumer as many as 6 options for flash drives of different sizes.
After some time, the model began to compete with portable, or, as they are also called, external, hard disks and SSD-drives. Transcend Jetflash 780 looks very profitable against the background of portable HDDs primarily because the read and write speeds are much higher. In addition, the flash drive is equipped with a USB 3.0 interface, which also provides high-speed performance.
If we compare the USB-flash-drive with SSD disks, then again there will be an advantage in favor of a flash drive, since it is noticeably cheaper in cost. Yes, SSDs will have a clear advantage in the speed of reading and writing, but not everyone is willing to pay extra for this. In addition, an ordinary USB flash drive is much more convenient to transfer than any hard drive. In general, such a comparison is still not entirely correct, but there is a place to be.
In principle, with the description of the Transcend Jetflash 780 you can finish and go to the next step.
Varieties
As already mentioned above, this model has several varieties, or, as they say, modifications, of different sizes. Initially, there were only four modifications, but after some time, two more additional ones appeared. In the Transcend Jetflash 780 line, you can find flash drives with a capacity of 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 and 256 GB. There are no external differences between the drives, they all have the same design and come in almost the same packages.
The difference is visible only in the technical characteristics, namely in the speed of reading and writing speed, as well as in the amount of memory itself.
Packaging and equipment
The flash drive is sold in the most ordinary blister type packaging. All drive information is on the back of the cardboard backing. Here are the characteristics of the flash drive, as well as some of its features. There is also a special "snake" which is designed for more convenient opening. On the front side of the package you can only see the company logo, model name, storage capacity and its write / read speed settings.
The golden logo marked Lifetime also attracts attention here, which means a lifetime warranty, but this is more of a marketing ploy than something real. Yes, by the way, the Transcend Jetflash 780 manufacturing country is China, and, more precisely, the Republic of Taiwan.
Appearance
The Transcend Jetflash 780 USB looks pretty stylish and interesting. The case is made of good quality plastic. The surface of the flash drive is decorated with a certain pattern resembling a chessboard. Some of the cells have a matte finish, while the rest half are glossy. Tactile sensations are pleasant, fingerprints on the plastic do not remain. Also on one side of the case there is a company logo, which is made in the form of an engraving.
The side edging, although it looks like metal, but in reality it is still the same plastic painted in chrome or nickel. On the right side of the border there is a marking in the form of the volume of the drive, the name of the model and some other parameters. There is also a special hole in the corner for the ability to attach the lace.
As for the cap, it sits in its place tightly, but still there is a barely perceptible backlash. There is a suspicion that over time or with fairly frequent use, the cap will more “hang out” in its place. The minus can be put for the fact that the cap does not attach to the main body and can be easily lost at any time.
Well, the last thing worth mentioning is the presence of an LED. It is located next to the engraved logo and has a blue color.
Specifications
It's time to move on to the technical specifications of the Transcend Jetflash 780. Here they are:
- Type of connection - USB.
- The version of the interface is 3. 0.
- The amount of memory is 8-256 GB.
- Reading speed - 100-210 Mb / s.
- The write speed is 20-140 Mb / s.
- Width - 21 mm.
- Length - 70 mm.
- Thickness - 8 mm.
In general, nothing special. If we talk about the parameters of write speed and read speed, then for each modification they are different. For example, an 8 GB flash drive will be the slowest, since its write speed and read speed are 20 and 100 Mb / s. The fastest are 64, 128 and 256 GB drives, their parameters are 140 and 210 Mb / s.
When you connect the Jetflash 780, you can see which file system the drive is formatted. To see this, just go to "My Computer" and among the connected devices, select our flash drive. Then you need to right-click on its name and select "Properties" from the menu that appears.
As you can see, the Transcend Jetflash 780 file system has exFAT format. Most likely, such a "picture" can be observed on all versions of the drive, except for an instance with 8GB of memory. One way or another, it is highly recommended to format the flash drive and transfer it to the NTFS file system, because at the moment it is the most common and less prone to any errors.
As for OS compatibility with the Transcend Jetflash 780, the manufacturer himself indicates that the flash drive works without any problems with Microsoft operating systems, starting with XP and ending with Windows 10, as well as MAC OS from version 10. If for some reason the USB flash drive refuses to be detected by the system or does not work correctly, for starters, it is necessary to reformat its file system from exFAT to NTFS, if this has not been done. As a rule, in most cases, this manipulation helps, since NTFS has better compatibility.
Well, in conclusion, a few words about the amount of available memory of the Transcend Jetflash 780. When you connect the USB flash drive to the computer, the 64GB drive shows the available space in 58.8GB, with the factory file system! Why is that? Everything is simple. In fact, the computer shows that allegedly there are declared 64 GB, but when converted to the decimal system, 5.2 GB are lost. They can’t be returned in any way, nothing can be done about it either. This phenomenon is common among absolutely all manufacturers.
If you reformat the drive to the NTFS file system, then the available capacity will not be 58.8, but 58.7 GB. A slight decrease is due to the fact that the system has reserved about 100 MB for some of its needs. Actually, the characteristics of the flash drive are over, we can proceed to testing.
Tests and comparison with competitors
So, it's time to do a few tests of the Transcend Jetflash 780 in order to measure the real speed of writing and reading from the drive. Testing will take place using several programs. The system will use a desktop computer running the Windows 7 64-bit operating system. Motherboard from Asus - P9X79 Pro. The processor is installed from Intel - this is the core i7-3930K without overclocking. The amount of RAM is 4 GB. There is nothing much to tell about the system.
As for the competitors with whom the comparison will be held, these are 3 flash drives from different manufacturers:
- Verbatim Store n Go V3 USB Drive 16 GB
- Silicon Power Marvel M01 32 GB /
- Kingston DataTraveler R3. 0 32 GB /
Yes, current competitors have less memory and their speed indicators are much lower, but the point here is to check how much the numbers declared by the manufacturer correspond to reality. Let's get started!
Everest
The first program to help test the speed is Everest. It has separate tests designed for such measurements. The first is called Linear Read, and the second is Random Read. One shows the average read speed, and the second - the maximum.
Actually, from the results we can observe a pretty good indicator. The manufacturer stated that the Jetflash 780 has a read speed of 210 Mb / s. However, in the test we can clearly see that this figure is slightly higher, which is good news. At least the company did not lie. As for the average read speed, this figure is 180 Mb / sec., Which is also very good.
But the competition is not so smooth. For example, a Kingston flash drive has a read speed of 120 Mb / s, but in fact it’s 76.9. The average figure is also not far gone. Verbatim has a much better situation. This drive fully justifies its stated 60 Mb / s. With the third flash drive from Silicon Power, everything is a little more complicated. The fact is that the manufacturer has not indicated the maximum speed indicators anywhere, but only noted that when connected to USB 3. 0, the drive will demonstrate the maximum of its capabilities. Nevertheless, the results of 129 and 106 Mb / s can be considered very good.
HD Tune Pro
With this program, you can see the average read speed from a flash drive.
Again, the situation is approximately similar. Transcend Jetflash 780, showed almost the same result as the previous program - 180.9 Mb / s. The flash drive from the Verbatim company also does not lag behind the declared characteristics. "Silicone Power", demonstrates something similar to the indicators from the tests in Everest, but a little better. An outsider again left a product from Kingston. This time he showed an even worse indicator than he was in the previous test. This is very strange, because Kingston has a lot of experience behind it and it’s even a little sad to watch such a “picture”.
Copy files
The third test will be quite simple. It will help to measure not only the maximum read speed, but also write.
Well, a pretty predictable result. The maximum write speed of the Transcend Jetflash 780 was 130.9, which is slightly lower than the number indicated by the manufacturer - 140. The reading rate from the card slightly decreased, this time it showed a result of 178.5. Surprisingly, Transcend really managed to make a very high-quality product.
Let's look at the competitors now. Perhaps it’s worth starting with Kingston. The reading indicator has grown, but everything still falls short of what was stated. But there are no problems with the reading speed - 45 is indicated in the specifications and 40 in fact. A very good result was shown by the Verbatim flash drive - its regular characteristics are 40/12, but in reality, it turns out, even more. Well, the last competitor is Silicon Power. As you can see, this drive has added speed, but in general its performance can be considered decent.
Access time
Well, the last test that remains to be done is the response time of the flash drive and how much processor resources are involved. The familiar HD Tune program will help to determine all this.
As you can see, the “hero” of today's review has a response rate of 0.6 ms, which, in fact, can be called an average indicator, but do not forget that this model has the largest volume, so this result is quite acceptable. Something similar was demonstrated by the device from Silicon Power, but the leaders in response time can safely be considered drives from Kingston and Verbatim - 0.3 ms.
Test results
If we take the results of all the tests carried out and distribute the participants in their places, we get the following result:
- Transcend Jetflash 780.
- Verbatim Store n Go V3 USB Drive.
- Silicon Power Marvel M01.
- Kingston DataTraveler R3. 0.
Unfortunately, the product from Kingston could not surprise anyone, except perhaps the response time. As for Jetflash, the results are very worthy. The drive has demonstrated an extremely high level of performance. This was all possible thanks to the use of NAND-memory, a very fast and efficient controller, and, of course, USB 3.0.
User reviews
Reviews about the Transcend Jetflash 780 are rather controversial, users are mainly divided into two groups - those who are happy with everything, except for minor bugs, and those whose flash drive has gone bad. If we talk about the first group, or rather, about minor flaws, then they primarily include the low speed of writing files, but there is one caveat - most people use this flash drive via the USB 2.0 port, and its bandwidth is much lower. The second drawback is the appearance of scuffs on the flash drive body, but due to the chess pattern this is not too noticeable.
Now, as for the second group of users, whose flash drive is out of order. Everything is also simple here - factory marriage. Alas, nothing can be done about this. Yes, the store will be replaced under warranty, but the overall impression of the product will change.
Current value
At the moment, the Transcend Jetflash 780 USB drive can be purchased from 600 rubles for an 8 GB version. A 64 GB flash drive will cost about 3,000 rubles, but the most expensive 256 GB modification will cost about 9,500 thousand rubles. It is impossible to consider such a purchase reasonable, since for the money it already makes sense to buy a good SSD.
Summarizing
To summarize, I would like to note the following: Transcend Jetflash 780 is a very good flash drive with quite powerful performance. It will not cause any problems both when copying files and when recording. The price for versions of 32 and 64 GB is quite justified, for this money it is unlikely to find anything more worthy.