By: Jonathan Kwan
November 22, 2013
If you have been around APH Networks for a while, you will notice we frequently talk about our history. Why do we like to talk about our history? Is it because, as Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana puts it, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"? Well, not exactly. The reason why we enjoy talking about it is because, firstly, we have history to talk about; and secondly, this week marks the eighth year of which we have been publishing reviews! Back in November 2005, I wrote my first article published here at APH Networks, with that being the Pure Energy XL rechargeable alkaline set. Over the years, we have worked almost one hundred different manufacturers to do over four hundred and fifty reviews. Without the support of you, the reader, and all these manufacturers who value our fair evaluations more than pure marketing, as well as a team of incredibly talented writers on the staff team, we definitely would not be here today. Back in the 2007 to 2008 period, we have reviewed the PD 17 1GB USB drive, Extreme Edition 2x1GB DDR2-800 RAM, and Eee PC Edition 8GB SDHC card from ADATA. For some reason, we have not covered anything from them since then. But today, we are back with the latest from the company. The ADATA DashDrive Elite UE700 64GB is a sleek USB 3.0 flash drive that carries an iF Design award. Good looking, fast, and large capacity? Seems like a formula for success to me. Let's see if this formula translates to a real winner in real life.
Our review unit of the ADATA DashDrive Elite UE700 64GB came in a relative compact, brown corrugated cardboard box from the company's American offices in California, USA. Using UPS Standard, everything arrived in perfect condition for our review today. Honestly, I don't know what more to talk about here. An overwhelming majority of products that lands on our desks come from California using UPS, so if something goes out of this norm, then it will definitely be news. As such, we opened the package, and went straight for the contents.
The DashDrive Elite UE700 64GB's retail packaging is standard fare for an ADATA product. It carries the company's image through and through. So what makes ADATA's company image? For me, it has to be the clean white background, simple text, and of course, the bird in the background. As you can see in our photo above, the ADATA's logo is placed at the top right corner, with the drive model name and capacity in varying font sizes printed right below it. The USB flash drive itself can be seen behind a plastic window. Meanwhile, stuff at the bottom is kept to a minimum; all you have is an iF Design award logo and the speed rating. Just for reference, our 64GB version is specified at 200MB/s read and 100MB/s write. This may vary depending on the capacity variant you buy (The UE700 is available in 16GB, 32GB, and 128GB sizes as well). Generally speaking, higher capacity drives perform better.
Before we move on, let's take a look at the specifications of the ADATA DashDrive Elite UE700 64GB, as obtained from the manufacturer's website:
Capacity: 16GB/32GB/64GB/128GB
Color: Black
Dimensions (L x W x H): 65 x 21 x 7mm (2.5 x 0.8 x 0.3in)
Weight: 11g (0.4oz)
Interface: USB 3.0 (backward compatible with USB 2.0)
System requirements: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and Mac OS 9.X or higher, with no device driver needed
Performance: Performance up to: 220MB/s (Read); 135MB/s (Write) (128GB model)
Page Index
1. Introduction and Specifications
2. A Closer Look, Test System
3. Benchmark: AIDA64 Disk Benchmark
4. Benchmark: ATTO Disk Benchmark
5. Benchmark: Crystal Disk Mark 3.0
6. Benchmark: HD Tach 3.0.1.0
7. Benchmark: HD Tune Pro 4.60
8. Conclusion
