14 DAY TRIAL // There aren't many affordable solid state drives out there, and even the supposedly cheap ones cost a lot more than HDDs, but it isn't for lack of trying, as Kingston is attempting to show.
Kingston has made it something of a habit to release one or more new solid state drives on a weekly basis or so.
This once, it isn't some new, super-mighty drive that it is promoting, but one that is supposed to appeal to those with lower budgets, like V100 before it.
Dubbed V200, the product series, described in detail on its official web page, covers the 64 GB-256GB capacity range.
More precisely, it comes in three versions, 64 GB, 128 GB and 256 GB, respectively.
It is fairly thin, at 7mm (64 GB and 128 GB models at least) instead of the 9mm sported by others, which is already quite thin on its own.
The SATA 6.0 Gbps interface (SATA III) is used and, as always, the maximum data rates vary depending on drive capacities.
The 256 GB model reads data at 300 MB/s and writes it at 230 MB/s. This isn't really on par with 550/500 or thereabouts that high-end SSDs sport, but still much better than any HDD.
The same goes for the 128 GB, although its own writing speed is 190 MB/s (read speed is the same as above).
The 64 GB models is, in the end, the only one that can't safely say it is faster than all mechanical drives on the market.
The read speed of 260 MB/s is impressive enough, but the write speed of 100 MB/s is not as amazing.
It is reported that the 64 GB drive is on sale in Canada for C$126 ($122 / 90.95 Euro), while the 128 GB unit was on sale for C$209 ($203 / 150 Euro) and the 256 GB model at C$444 ($432 / 320 Euro).