We’ve received quite a few cool gadgets to review this year (most of which we’ll be giving away (to be announced shortly)). One gadget that I’ve been playing with for the last few months is the SanDisk Cruzer Titanium 2GB USB Flash Drive (apologises to Jamie for the excessive time this review has taken).

The Cruzer Titanium is one tough flash drive, it boasts the ability to withstand 2,000 lbs of crush force (which we put to the test with the help of a friends’ grossly over-sized MPV). One of the weak points on many similar sticks is the USB connector, the Cruzer avoids this problem by having the connector slide in and out of the casing (this even protects it from manic drivers who are on a USB destroying rampage).

Performance wise the Cruzer was up to the job transferring a compressed 650MB backup file in 1 minute 38 seconds and reading the file back took just over 30 seconds. Other than it’s toughness one of the other key benefits of this Cruzer version is the inclusion of the U3 software suite.

With U3 you are able to carry your favourite applications around with you, not only does this give you the convenience of having the applications you know and love available to you on any PC it also offers you a bit more security as data like Internet history, email etc. are only stored on your drive (which can obviously be password protected).

As standard the U3 software comes preinstalled with CruzerSync (for synchronising with you main PC), Avast Antivirus, SignupShield Passwords and Avast Antivirus. There is a whole bunch of other compatible software for the U3, including the freely available FireFox (quite surprised that wasn’t installed by default), Thunderbird email client and OpenOffice. Along with the free software there is also heaps of U3 compatible paid programs.

I’ve been using the Cruzer as my primary flash drive for the last few months and it hasn’t let me down yet. I’ve dropped it, stood on it and intentionally run over it and other than a few scratches it’s still as good as new. In our next competition we will be giving the Cruzer away as a prize so keep a look out for that.

Finally here’s the video of the MPV versus the Cruzer (if you can’t see the video please click here).