Raspberry Pi is best known for its low-cost custom computers. But the company also wants fans to consider buying USB thumb drives.
On Thursday, the company expanded into selling Raspberry Pi-branded USB 3.0 flash drives, starting at $30. That’s pricier than your average USB stick, but it promises better performance and durability.
“For basics like these, it’s tempting to reach for the cheapest thing on Amazon or whatever you find in your local supermarket,” Raspberry Pi says in a blog post. “But you can easily end up with a device that has sluggish read and write speeds, fragile casing, or—worst of all—far less storage capacity than it claims.”
Simply called the Raspberry Pi Flash Drive, the product is available for $30 for the 128GB version and $55 for the 256GB model. That’s about double the price you’ll find on Amazon for cheaper USB sticks. However, Raspberry Pi says its product comes in a sleek “all-alumnium enclosure,” which promises to be nearly impossible to break.
(Credit: Raspberry Pi)
The 128GB version can also sustain a 75MB per second data transfer speed while the 256GB model can reach 150 MB/s. The products can even hit higher speeds in short bursts, thanks to a “small reservation of pseudo-SLC cache to improve performance,” the company says.
“This cache does, however, make benchmarking challenging. For this reason, the USB 3.0 performance figures we quote are sustained figures,” Raspberry Pi adds.
Recommended by Our Editors
The other perk is how the drives support “S.M.A.R.T.” health reporting, giving you a way to monitor the product’s lifespan. Each USB drive is designed for a USB Type A connector. The drives also come with a hole attachment that can be used to hook to a keyring or chain.
(Credit: Raspberry Pi)
“And our thorough testing has made sure it can handle the demands of real life when it comes to sudden disconnection and power failure,” the blog post adds. “We verified that our new flash drive meets this requirement over tens of thousands of random power cycles while running intermittently intensive I/O workloads.”
Get Our Best Stories!
Your Daily Dose of Our Top Tech News
By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy
Policy.
Thanks for signing up!
Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox!
About Our Expert
Michael Kan
Senior Reporter
Experience
I’ve been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I’m currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country’s technology sector.
Since 2020, I’ve covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I’ve combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink’s cellular service.
I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. Earlier this year, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.
I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I’m now following how President Trump’s tariffs will affect the industry. I’m always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.
Read Full Bio
