[section label=”Prices/Where to Buy”]
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Price / Where to Buy:
PH – Php1000 – Kingston Year of the Monkey Limited Edition Flash Drive on Lazada
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[section label=”Introduction”]
Kingston has been rolling out Chinese New Year special flash drives for a couple of years now but it wasn’t until the recent year of the rabbit that we received one of the animal-inspired flash drive from the company. Starting from there, it has been a Lunar New Year tradition for Kingston to release limited edition Chinese Zodiac themed flash drives starting from the Rabbit, followed by the Dragon, Snake, Horse, and Goat. Now, 2016 heralds the Year of the Monkey and of course Kingston is rolling out another addition to its growing collection of limited edition CNY flash drives with the Monkey Limited Edition flash drive. Let’s take a look at this collectible storage device, read on!
[section label=”Closer Look”]
Closer Look
As a special edition release, Kingston packages the Monkey Limited Edition flash drive in a special tin box with Chinese motiff in the package. A clear window lets you see the inside of the packaging with the happy little monkey is peeking through. A 5-year warranty seal is on the lower edge.
Nothing much on the back of the packaging.
To protect during travel, Kingston secures the Monkey Limited Edition flash drive with a foam insert with a Chinese character for visual appeal.
While most of the previous Kingston CNY limited edition flash drives were rubberized, the Monkey Limited Edition release is pure metal. This is actually the first release since the Rabbit edition that do not feature a capped design but instead goes for a unibody design with the mass of the flash drive made of metal with the monkey face made of plastic. The entire design is quite small, smaller than previous releases but its metal body makes up for it the build quality is really superb.
[section label=”Conclusion”]
Value & Conclusion
There’s simply no arguing that these flash drives are intended to be novelty items rather than performance products. Still, Kingston has utilized USB3.0 technology on this Monkey Limited Edition flash drive (DTCNY16/32GB) allowing it to get much better speeds than its USB2.0 predescessors. Ultimately some folks may opt not to even use these drives for daily use rather just display them in a shelf or desk. Displaying the Monkey Limited Edition flash drive might be a problem though as its lack of surface area on to stand on means you might need a little Blutack or tape to keep it upright.
At over 130MB/s read and around 20MB/s write, this flash drive is quick at read access but write performance isn’t anything stellar and is honestly just on par with its USB2.0 counterpart. That being said, performance is definitely not one of the strong point of this flash drive but given its read numbers, its got its uses, too.
In conclusion, this cheery little monkey might not feed your daily need for fast access but as daily drive for students and office work its enough to satisfy but its true value lies in its build quality and collector’s value. That said, at a street price of below 1000Php for 32GB its not an easy recommendation but if you can find one for sale below Php800 then its a nice find especially if you’re into collecting the Kingston Chinese New Year series.
Kingston backs the 2016 Monkey Limited Edition 32GB Flash
