The Lexar JumpDrive Firefly USB Flash Drive: Does the Firefly Meet Your Data Needs?

The Lexar JumpDrive Firefly 2.0GB USB Flash Drive

Appearance

The Firefly is a pretty small USB flash drive, about the same size as an average key. The firefly is about 1.75 inches long, 0.5 inches wide, and 0.25 inches thick. The drive comes with a hard plastic protective cover, which covers the USB connection and about 75% of the rest of the drive. The hard plastic cover features an eyelet for connection to a keychain or lanyard, and snaps securely into place. The main body of the drive is black plastic
The Firefly takes its name from a blue LED in the end that faces away from the USB connector, towards the user. This LED flickers on and off when the drive is in use, similar to fireflies swarming around a swampy area on a hot summer night.

The firefly effect is pretty cool, and the overall appearance is reasonable attractive. Sorry guys, the Firefly is not cool enough to get you a date with one of the girls from the dance team. Unless you are tall, handsome, charismatic, and have a Firefly, in which case you have a chance.

Performance

I have read several reviews complaining about the speed of the Firefly. Since the Firefly is more of a regular mass market flash drive, it is not meant to compete with higher-end, higher speed drives. Lexar has not indicated read or write speeds for the Firefly on their website.
However, since there is no sacrifice that I won't make to inform my readers about this product (not true), and want to write the most thorough review possible (mostly true), I have performed some testing. I transferred 1.87 GB of mp3 files onto and off of the Firefly and timed the transfer.



Lexar JumpDrive Firefly 12.5 MB/second read speed, 1.5M/second write speed (measured)

Lexar Lightning 24MB/second read speed, 18MB/second write speed (manufacturer's data)

SanDisk Titanium 15MB/second read speed, 9MB/second write speed (manufacturer's data)

Kingston Migo Data Traveler 15.6MB/second read 9.8MB/second write speed (measured)

Please note that the times for the Firefly and Data Traveler Migo are actual times that I measured. The two other times are data provided by the manufacturer. The other drives are also more expensive drives designed for higher speeds. Drives which are competitive with the Firefly from other manufacturers also generally do not have their read/write speed specifications published.

I think the Firefly does well for read speed, but is a bit slow for write speed.

Reliability

I have not used by Firefly heavily, but I have used it to transfer files and to hold mp3s to play at work. I have had no problems with any of the files that I have transferred. The drive seems to be reasonably tough, especially with the hard plastic cover in place. As long as it is not abused, I would expect it to be quite reliable.

Connectivity

Like most flash drives, you simply plug the Firefly into a Windows XP or Vista computer, and the computer will recognize the drive and install the drivers for you. I found that on the network at work, I had to have the drive connected before I logged in order for the drive to show up as an available drive in My Computer. I am not sure if this is typical of all company networks, or just ours.

Price and Availability

The 2GB version of the Firefly is widely available on the internet, and is currently reasonably priced at about $30. The 4GB version is also widely available, and goes for around $50-$55.

Overall

I think the Firefly is a reasonably priced, reliable USB flash drive. I like the Firefly effect LED and the small size of the drive. The read speed is relatively fast. The write speed is a bit slow. If you are looking for a USB flash drive for occasional use, the Firefly is a good bet. If you are doing a lot of file transfers every day, you would probably want to consider a faster drive, such as the Lexar Lightning, SanDisk Titanium, or Kingston Migo Data Traveler.