14 DAY TRIAL // PNY, HP's authorized dealer of flash products, has announced a new flash drive unit, one that tries to be fun and useful at the same time.
To be fair, all consumer products attempt, to some extent, to be both fun and useful, but HP may have succeeded at the 'fun' part better than others.
That is because the HP v270w has an unusual shape and a “light-hearted and fun vibe whilst offering fast and convenient transfer of files on the go.”
The product is shaped like an egg, whose upper part (the cap) uses yellow rubber to protect against water and shocks.
Thus, should one drop or hit the item against anything, there will be little chance of it being damaged. It should even float on water.
Speaking of the design, there is a wavy pattern on the cover, for easy disconnection and grip.
Of course, all of these design optimizations, along with the HP logo strap attached to the end of the drive, would not be worth the effort without decent specs.
The press release doesn't specify the exact USB interface, so this is probably an USB 2.0 unit, not a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 one.
As such, prospective buyers shouldn't hold their breath for the ultimate read and write rates, although the announcement did say that the v270 “offers a superior data transfer speed.”
Then again, PNY did not go out of its way to make them too capacious either: the top model has 32GB, the others being of 2 GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB, respectively.
The Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems are all supported, as is Mac OS 10.3 and above.
Unfortunately, no prices were mentioned, so those interested will have to wait until retailers start listing it, which shouldn't take too long.
If anything, the HP v270w might sell quite a bit around Easter, what with the holiday's egg theme.