Kingston DataTraveler Max 1TB Flash Drive Review

The DataTraveler Max comes in a tall, thin box with an image of the drive on the front. At the top right-hand side of the box is a label with the capacity of the drive on it, and between this and the drive image are the maximum read/write speeds (1,000MB/s and 900MB/s respectively) and the fact that it uses a USB 3.2 Gen2, USB Type-C interface. The back of the box has a small table on it showing which OS the drive is compatible with alongside a diagram showing a USB Type-C interface.

Kingston's DataTraveler Max uses a plastic case that is grooved on one side. A nice design touch is the fact that the USB Type-C connecter is safely hidden away until you want to use it. Then it's a simple case of pushing the keyring tab on the back of the drive to slide the connecter out. Just behind the Kingston branding is a small blue drive activity LED.

The DataTraveler Max uses a Silicon Motion SM2320 4-channel controller. It uses a USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface, so there is no need for a performance-sapping bridging chip in a drive design. The controller supports up to 4TB of TLC and QLC NAND and provides AES 256-bit encryption, TCG Opal 2.0 and Fingerprint Security support although Kingston hasn't made any use of any of these as the DataTraveler Max doesn't come with any form of encryption. The SM2320 also uses Silicon Motion's NANDXtend ECC end-to-end data path protection.

Kingston’s SSD management software utility is simply called SSD Manager.  With it, you can monitor the health of the drive and how it’s being used, check the drive’s SMART data and update the firmware.

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