Conclusion

The Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 G3 is a worthy successor to the Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 Gen. 2 flash drive. Kingston officially bumped up its read speed from 100 MB/s to 150 MB/s, while maintaining the write speed at 70 MB/s (write), but as our test results show, it can actually exceed that under certain circumstances.

Our tests using IO Meter showed that the DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 G3 flash drive is actually capable of delivering a read speed of 192 MB/s and a write speed of 95 MB/s. That's 28% and 36% faster than the rated read and write speeds.

In our real-world file transfer test though, the Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 G3 was only capable of a sustained read speed of 62 MB/s and a sustained write speed of 53 MB/s. At those speeds, it would just over 20 minutes to completely fill this 64 GB flash drive, and 17 minutes to copy out its entire contents. In other words, this is a very fast USB flash drive.

However, please note that the Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 G3 is really optimized for USB 3.0 and does not do as well in USB 2.0. When we tested it using a USB 2.0 port, it only managed to deliver a peak read speed of 34.6 MB/s and a peak write speed of 28.3 MB/s - average performance for any USB 2.0 drive.

Unlike what we saw with the Kingston DataTraveler Elite 3.0, the Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 G3 is a really cool-running drive. By that, we mean that it has a low case temperature even when it's running on full load. This is mainly due to its bulkier, double-case design.

We should point out that the DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 G3 is rather slow at random writes, both small and large. If you intend to run an operating system off this drive, then its poor random write performance is going to hurt. It may be a USB 3.0 flash drive, but the fast USB 3.0 interface isn't going to help with its poor random write performance. This is not what the DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 G3 is designed for.

Overall, the Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 G3 is a good choice if you are looking for a fast USB 3.0 flash drive to copy and share large files. Once you have seen how fast it can transfer files on USB 3.0, you can never go back to USB 2.0 flash drives. It's that fast!

Despite its single-minded focus on large, sequential transfers, we feel that the Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 G3's phenomenal performance and low case temperature is worthy of our Reviewer's Choice Award. Congratulations, Kingston!

For the lowest current prices on the Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 G3, click here!

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