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SanDisk launches its smallest USB flash drive in North America

By | July 27, 2010, 5:20am PDT

Summary: SanDisk unveiled what it calls the smallest USB flash drive in North America. The drive weighs about the same as a penny and is the size of a paper clip.

SanDisk on Tuesday unveiled what it calls its smallest USB flash drive in North America. The drive weighs about the same as a penny and is the size of a paper clip.

Note: The Cruzer Blade is SanDisk’s smallest USB flash drive – and it is now available in North America – but the company is not laying claim to it being the smallest overall drive in North America.

The device, dubbed the SanDisk Cruzer Blade, is designed to be carried on a key chain or a mobile phone dongle. The idea is that this little gizmo would store your song, pictures and video as you move between devices. The capacities range from 2GB to 16GB. This drive, will cost you $14.99 to $77.99, may fall into the small-and-easy-to-lose category.

Will this drive be a hit with consumers? The drive caught my eye because I’m increasingly interested and storing media for use on various devices, notably what is likely to be a new smartphone. SD cards are nice, but are likely to be lost too easily. Flash is the enabler of everything from e-readers to tablets to smartphones. It only makes sense to have some sort of easy way to carry your media between devices. Perhaps the cloud winds up being an easier choice, but a Flash drive can do the trick too.

SanDisk CEO Eli Harari said last week on the company’s earnings conference call that flash is replacing paper in many respects. Flash is the storage media of choice for most devices. “We never think about flash as replacing paper but that’s basically what is happening,” said Harari.

With that view SanDisk’s new drive is a bit like a paper-clip sized briefcase.

Source: SanDisk statement

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SanDisk Corp., USB Flash Drive, Flash Memory, Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

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Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

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RE: SanDisk: We have the smallest USB flash drive
tomlin21-24319035676893835085146735905770 11th Oct
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The smallest?
bmgoodman 27th Jul 2010
What are the dimensions? I can't find them. Is it really smaller than the Super Talent Pico C? The latter is about the size of a piece of Trident sugarless gum.
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RE: SanDisk: We have the smallest USB flash drive
CobraA1 27th Jul 2010
Call me when they're as small as the new tiny Bluetooth adapters.
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RE: SanDisk: We have the smallest USB flash drive
Michael Kelly 27th Jul 2010
@CobraA1

Those bluetooth adapters are meant to be permanent fixtures on a computer, primarily for a laptop in which you don't want a permanent two inch protrusion that can easily snap off if you make a bad move. A flash drive is meant to carry from one computer to another. I rarely have a flash drive plugged in for more than 10 minutes at a time. So as long as it's light, size is not nearly as important.

Now I can see the advantage of having an USB SD card reader that protrudes about as far as those bluetooth adapters, because you would want to keep that in permanently, and it's only the tip of the card that needs to be read anyway. But I doubt those will be made since every new laptop has a reader built in.
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RE: SanDisk: We have the smallest USB flash drive
bobsub 27th Jul 2010
@CobraA1
i believe we will see this as storage device for camers next year with adaptor
boiler bob
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How small do we really need them?
rupaa62 27th Jul 2010
Ok they make them small but come on people just want a USB drive to save and backup, and move data off their computer. So if they make it so small people won't be able to put and take them out of their computers companies should be making their USB drives more realiable and larger sizes. Size does not matter.
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RE: SanDisk: We have the smallest USB flash drive
germ161 27th Jul 2010
The announcement is just saying that they are being released in the US and Canada now. They have been available outside them for a while now.
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Replace paper? Even TOILET PAPER?
Scrod 27th Jul 2010
Aw, replacing paper is a nice thought, but I've got paper from the 1940s and 50s that still works perfectly and has lost very little information(turning yellow, a few mouse nibbles). I'm not sure flash drives will hold up that long in a box under a bed.
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LOL
naibeeru 1st Aug 2010
@Scrod
Nice one, Scrod! Yep, ya can't beat the good 'ol Mk1 paper. And you don't need a computer to see what's on it, either... wink
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RE: SanDisk: We have the smallest USB flash drive
joe@... 27th Jul 2010
Call me when they're smaller than a microSD card with one of those tiny microSD-to-USB adaptors.
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Too late Verbatium's is the smallest
amasys 27th Jul 2010
Tuff&Tiny - 1/2 wide, 1/16 thick 1 long..available at newegg.com - sandisk has to loose the USB square!
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RE: SanDisk: We have the smallest USB flash drive
bc3tech 27th Jul 2010
even on their website there's not a single reference image. If you're going to compare it to a penny, set it next to a penny!
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RE: SanDisk: We have the smallest USB flash drive
cpuguy1 Updated - 27th Jul 2010
@brandon@...
VERY TRUE ...
I like the analogy reference idea. They do need a standard size paper clip in the picture.
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RE: SanDisk: We have the smallest USB flash drive
Richard B 27th Jul 2010
Smaller convenience or simply easier to lose. I need a lager size drive. AS fro a replacement to paper, please; how are you going t to read your document off a computer if one is not available.
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RE: SanDisk: We have the smallest USB flash drive
Randall679 27th Jul 2010
We've had those little red Cruzer Blades down here in Australia for about a year. I found they're just too small and easy to lose, even on a lanyard. They ended up on sale at Officeworks/Stapels.
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RE: SanDisk: We have the smallest USB flash drive
dickmac-zdnet@... 27th Jul 2010
If you want the size, look at the picture above. Note the USB plug which seems to be about its normal size (if not, scale it to size) and you'll see how big it is. It's larger than a penny but they only said that it's as light as a penny, not smaller. It's also the size of a rather large paper clip, larger than most and smaller than the largest, so I can't dispute their size claims but who cares? The smaller they are, the easier to lose, and this from someone who once lost a cell phone.
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What about the Lexar Echo ZE
ronfritz 27th Jul 2010
I keep an 8g Lexar Echo ZE in the front usb port of my Kenwood DPX503 car stereo without any fear that I'll bump it and break it off. I could also plug it into my laptop and then stuff my laptop into my backpack without damaging the flash drive.
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RE: SanDisk: We have the smallest USB flash drive
bd1235 27th Jul 2010
These guys will publish anything that people push at them. It's quite obvious the Sandisk is not the smallest because it's wider than the usb socket. I can buy Verbatim flash drives in Australia that are only the width of the usb socket and about an inch long. You also get the loop to put them on the keyring. Prices are cheaper too. lol
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RE: SanDisk: We have the smallest USB flash drive
pamandua2@... 27th Jul 2010
"Smallest doesn't mean is good! The disadvantage are few. It is very easy to get lost, stolen and fiddly. A person which has poor eye sight would have problem connect it to the usb socket. Searching inside the pockets/bags among other things will be frustated.
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32GB Echo ZE Backup Drive looks a whole lot smaller...
AZDnetSubscriber 27th Jul 2010
I saw ronfritz's comment and looked up the Lexar 32GB Echo ZE Backup Drive... It looks a lot smaller, and looks like something I would love to keep plugged into my laptop/desktop. I'd have no worries about nocking it and breaking it or my computer.

http://www.lexar.com/echo/echo_ze.html

But I really would like to hear about a flash drive's ability to keep its data for as long as a piece of paper... Call me when you hear about one happy I don't want my beautiful nature photographs to disappear for ever when so many people enjoy them.
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KingMax Superstick mini?
DOSlover 28th Jul 2010
I have a 16GB Cruzer (A$42.00) which is small but not nearly as small as my Kingmax Super Stick Mini, which I carry in my wallet. Both are noteworthy but the Cruzer Blade looks bulky compared with the svelte dimensions of the Kingmax.
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RE: SanDisk: We have the smallest USB flash drive
b1thunt3r 28th Jul 2010
It is bigger then a Kingston Datatraveler Mini Slim. And the speeds on Slim are quite impressing too be the cheapest drives when i bought it. (Read: 20 MB/s, Write: 12 MB/s, in real life windows file transfer).
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RE: SanDisk: We have the smallest USB flash drive
mv520 28th Jul 2010
I've been using Sony's Tiny Micro Vault for years...
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SYSearchQuickView?storeId=10151&catalogId=10551&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665540659
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But I have playful cats...
psion@... 28th Jul 2010
They could swallow something that small. or bat it into a corner and i'd never find it.
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RE: SanDisk: We have the smallest USB flash drive
tomlin21-24319035676893835085146735905770 11th Oct
Your website has aided me a great deal to provide once more alot much more assurance reebok jersey in myself. Many thanks! Ive recommended it to my acquaintances in addition.

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