SAMSUNG 256GB BAR Plus (Metal) USB 3.1 Flash Drive, Speed Up to 300MB/s (MUF-256BE3/AM)

Pros: The build / feel of it is great and looks good

Cons: The write speeds are horrible. Approx 24 a second copying / cutting and pasting off a Samsung 960evo m.2 ssd and a 8Gb video file. About 3 seconds into the process it will drop to approx 24 a second. This is just like other reviewers saw. I even tried tweaking Windows 10 settings to see if it would help and Nope. The reviewers say its the absurdly small cache on these that does this. Just a horrible product decision.

Pros: Its a very nice design,its read speed is 200 mb/s thats correct but write speed is 20 mb/s at usb 3.0, i tested on usb 3.1 i got write speed at 42 mb/s, its slower write speed than my other flash drives but read speed is very fast i like that.

Cons: write speed,,, i didnt like its very slow, my Laxar flash drive is 170 mb/s write speed and read too, why this new flash drive which is usb 3.1 slower write speed??????

Overall Review: 50/50

Pros: Read speeds are indeed ~300mb/s Heavy and expensive feeling. Really though, it feels very premium, if that's something you're concerned with. It's got a nice size to it, not too chunky and not so small it's hard to remove from a port. Narrow enough to not block other ports.

Cons: Write speeds are atrocious. Around 45-50mb/s for large contiguous files, but things like installers and programs with lots of small files, around 14-16mb/s. That's very slow, but if you only need to put them on there once, you'd be fine.

Overall Review: I'd buy it again, I don't need a crazy fast drive, but if you do, look for a more expensive model, because this one won't do it.

Pros: Benchmarked at 250 mb/sec running on 3.0 usb port.

Cons: Died suddenly after 2.5 months. Pain to get warranty replacement from Samsung. Update: Samsung made me jump through hoops to return this for a warranty replacement and finally they sent me a cash refund claiming the drive was out of stock. It took me 3 email exchanges and two phone calls, all for a cheap drive that obviously has a high failure rate.

Overall Review: Would be afraid to buy again.

Pros: PRETTY

Cons: I only saw transfer speed of 18MB/s, compared with other 3.0 drives I use at 55MB/s, same task.

Overall Review: Didn't see 3.0 speed, slow to copy media.

Pros: Fast read speeds, well built, great price. Crystal Disk Mark results: 224.4 MB/s seq read speed, 34.34 MB/s seq write speed.

Cons: Slow write speeds.

Overall Review: If you consider the price, complaining about the performance is unreasonable.

Pros: This is a hefty, all metal thumb drive. Very snug fit.

Cons: While the flare at the end that doubles its width looks cool, it may interfere with the port next to it. Given the very snug fit, you do have to kind of force it a bit.

Overall Review: Crystal disk mark put the sequential, single threaded read rate at 221MB/s and write rate at 35MB/s. Increasing to 2 simultaneous threads dropped the read rate to 109MB/s but kept the write rate at 35MB/s. Real world tests were not as good, however. Copying a lot of large files (~200MB each) between it and a RAM disk yielded a read rate of 194MB/s and a write rate of 23MB/s. Copying a lot of small files (~1.5MB each) yielded a read rate of 118MB/s and a write rate of 20MB/s. Certainly not the fastest drive around, but at $8 on special. it's really hard to complain.

Pros: No sliding parts - makes the exterior repair free instead of broken sliding parts. For the price the read/write speed is acceptable. Rugged. Easy to transport between computers or ports.

Cons: None

Overall Review: For over a year now, the Samsung 256GB Flash drive has performed flawlessly. It is a great storage device for home movies. I use VLC and the movies never buffer. Awesome device. I'm purchasing another one because I like a flash drive without breakable sliding parts.