LaCie iamaKey Review

This is the LaCie iamaKey. 4GB or 8GB of USB storage hidden in an object that looks just like an ordinary household key. The package is simple blister plastic with a printed card depicting a keyring; the LaCie key and the cover for the USB connector.

As always, the official product page for the iamaKey is effusive in its praise, and while I won’t dissect every bit of the manufacturer’s product blurb, a couple of things stand out.

With the new LaCie iamaKey, inventive storage meets data protection. The key-shaped design is functional and memorable, and the protection that the LaCie iamaKey offers makes it extremely reliable. Best of all, with its 4GB and 8GB models, you can fit an enormous amount of data in a small flash drive. With the universal Hi-Speed USB 2.0 interface, iamaKey can be used with both PC and Macs. Hi-Speed USB 2.0 not only offers universal compatibility and cross-platform convenience, but features a hot-pluggable connection and high-speed transfer rates, and is Windows ReadyBoost™ compatible. With its eye-catching design, the iamaKey certainly stands out, but its connector (Gold SIP) is both water- and scratch-resistant, making it one of the most durable and thinnest USB keys on the market. Protective edges on the connectors ensure that you'll always insert the LaCie iamaKey properly, keeping it usable and safe.

Firstly, it really is quite thin. For overall size it’s not quite in the same league as the tiniest USB keys (for example, the Sony MicroVault Tiny has it soundly beaten in all 3 dimensions), but the form that it takes guarantees that it actually fits properly in any USB socket, unlike some.

It looks nothing like a traditional, boring old boxy USB drive, nor does it have a thick rubberized plastic coating like the Corsair Flash Voyager – which can prevent you using the USB port next to your USB flash drive.

Its brother is the itsaKey – the same electronics in a different style key, its cousins are the currenKey which looks like a rather large thick coin, and the passKey, which converts a microSD card into a USB device.

OK, so it’s a funky looking USB key. What’s inside?

The LaCie features list for the iamaKey is simple and direct:

• Fast transfer rates (Read mode: up to 30 MB/s; Write mode: up to 10MB/s)

• Reliable, shock-proof, scratch-proof and water-resistant
• Plug & play
• Up to 8GB of storage in one drive

The official specifications from LaCie read as follows:

Out of the box the 8GB key provides just over 7.5 “real” GB of data space – about 8.08 billion bytes. I find this a little unusual for a memory device – usually the disk manufacturers are the ones who fall back onto using SI units for Kilobytes, Megabytes and Gigabytes – memory manufacturers generally use “powers of two” instead, just due to the internal designs of the chips. Hopefully this means that the LaCie iamaKey will have some space set aside for spare memory locations – and that if a sector in memory fails, the controller will use this spare space instead of marking parts of the key as bad (broken).

In fact as can be clearly seen above, there is almost nothing on this key when delivered from the factory – the only files are the Windows icon for the drive, and the autorun.inf file that makes that icon work (and hidden metadata files).

It’s big enough to store lots of data – but how does it perform?

LaCie state that the drive supports ReadyBoost, and indeed as soon as I opened the Windows properties dialog, I could see the ReadyBoost system test the iamaKey and it is, indeed, compatible.

The raw ReadyBoost performance numbers (a one off test, if it “succeeds”) are as follows:

• Random Read Speed: 4660 KB/sec (minimum for ReadyBoost: 2500 KB/sec)
• Random Write Speed: 2251 KB/sec (minimum for ReadyBoost: 1750 KB/sec)

Observant readers will notice a rather large discrepancy between the performance numbers quoted by LaCie and the numbers reported by Windows ReadyBoost. This is to be expected – the numbers reported by LaCie are sequential access, like reading a novel from first page to last; the numbers that Windows reports are random access, like reading page 23, then 49, 101, 12, 224, 76, 188 and so forth. Interestingly when I used ATTO to get some comparative statistics, the data was unusable - every time. I've highlighted what I believe to be obviously incorrect figures:

So ReadyBoost works – but what if I just want to store files?

There are four main types of activity that can stress test a storage device:

• Reading small files
• Writing small files
• Reading large files
• Writing large files

Small files test the devices ability to rapidly respond to requests that use all parts of the device. This test will give us numbers that are much lower than the packaging suggests. Large files allow us to see just how good the device is at storing or retrieving data – this is the type of test that generally gives us the numbers posted on the package (remember: 30MB/s read, 10MB/s write), and also ensures that the test numbers are not unduly influenced by smart electronics.

SMALL FILES

These tests use a dataset with the following pathologically nasty configuration:

• 2144 files in 310 folders (some empty folders)
• Minimum file size: 1KB (1024 bytes);
• Maximum file size: 1MB (1048576 bytes);
• Total size of all files: 130 MB (137,290,892 bytes)

Read Test

The test copies these from the USB key to the local disk drive five times in rapid succession. The results are reasonable – the iamaKey managed a respectable 1707 KB/s on average, and took 78 seconds to read the 130MB of data. Not bad.

Write Test

The test copies these from the local disk drive to the USB key five times in rapid succession. The results are unsurprising (and hardly inspiring) – the iamaKey managed just 363 KB/s on average, taking over 6 minutes to copy the data.

LARGE FILES

These tests use a dataset with the following configuration:

• 27 files in 16 folders (some empty folders);
• Minimum file size: 10.2 MB (10,754,377 bytes);
• Maximum file size: 89.1 MB (93,471,744 bytes);
• Total size of all files: 747 MB (783,609,012 bytes)

Read Test

The test copies these from the USB key to the local disk drive five times in rapid succession. The results are excellent – the iamaKey managed 13,917 KB/s on average and took less than a minute to read the data.

Write Test

The test copies these from the local disk drive to the USB key five times in rapid succession. The results are pretty good for a “normal” USB key – the iamaKey managed 4,387 KB/s on average, taking just under 3 minutes to save the data.

STRESS TEST

The stress test takes the test data we’ve already put on the key (one copy of the small fileset and one of the large fileset) and then reads and writes it to the key at the same time. We repeat the test five times, just to ensure that we work the device as hard as we can.

The iamaKey managed 1306 KB/s, on average, taking 11 minutes and 30 seconds per copy. Not shabby at all for this stress test.

I don’t think I’ve ever found a “perfect” ... well ... anything really. I can find problems or annoyances everywhere, if I look hard enough – even my own work. Especially my own ... well let’s not go there.

The LaCie iamaKey is a pretty good device, but three things struck me as I was reviewing:

• There’s no activity light on the key.
• The dust cap is tiny, clear and extremely lightweight – so it will get lost, no matter how careful you are.
• It’s a little expensive compared to most of its competition.

The lack of an activity light is quite likely due to the size and shape of the iamaKey. It would have been quite difficult to find a good spot to have the LED that wouldn’t have detracted from its disguise on a keyring; about the best place I could come up with would be on the inside of the hole in the head of the key. This would permit the light to be hidden discreetly but still provide an indication of how hard the key was working.

Without it I do fear that people (who have been conditioned to just yank the key out of the computer) will lose data because there is no way to tell whether a file copy really is completely done.

The dust cap issue doesn’t bother me too much, but it’s worth being aware of. The USB connector spec doesn’t really seem to have nailed down a good method to protect the connectors from dust and dirt, and a USB key kept in a pocket full of lint really needs a cap. Nevertheless, the connectors are out in the open and it won’t be difficult to give it a quick clean with a small soft brush.

As for the price, it’s definitely on the high side. It’s not impossible to find a cheap 8GB USB key for under $30 (Australian) and there are dozens under $40 so the $70 that LaCie’s Australian distributors recommend is not particularly competitive.

Overall the LaCie iamaKey is a pretty nifty device. The metal casing combined with the “almost a key” design makes it much easier to carry around than most other USB flash drives, performance is good, there’s no crapware on the key when you load it up for the first time, and it didn’t even get hot under extended, heavy use.

The negatives are fairly small – remember to use Windows “Safely Remove” tool to make sure the drive is written before you pull it out, and you’ll avoid most problems. The dust cap is a minor quibble and the price difference is probably less than you would pay for a fast food dinner – and you get a proper metal key not a brittle plastic box.

Overall an awesome device – this one is going on my keyring, not back to the shop. They can whistle Dixie (though I suspect they’ll just charge my credit card ... again ...).

Rating: 9 out of 10

• Buy the LaCie iamaKey at TechBuy for only $61.60
• Buy the LaCie itsaKey – the iamaKey’s brother – at TechBuy for only $61.85

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