Lacie’s iamaKey

Lacie's iamaKey Review


Design:
Lacie’s new iamaKey promises to be shock-proof, scratch-proof and water resistant. And the iamaKey does indeed have a sturdy design – just like a real key. It’s also got a silver metallic finish like ordinary keys and thus it will easily blend in unassumingly on your key chain.

The iamaKey feels like it will withstand the riggers of everyday use much better than your average plastic USB key, and it seems like it will also have a longer shelf life than ordinary USB keys. The iamaKey is definitely a USB key for the clumsier amongst us or those that work and play too hard for their poor little flash drive’s own good. The iamaKey also come with a little see-through plastic cap to cover the part the USB connector, the cap fits snuggly, but we imagine that it can be easily forgotten or left behind because it’s so small and see-through. And by the time we actually got to writing this review, we had already misplaced the cap.

Performance:
Lacie claims read speeds of up to 30MB/s and write speeds up to 10MB/s. In real world tests we got consistent 10MB/s read and write speeds on average when transferring video files on to the iamaKey. Below are the Xbench’s results. We also noticed that the iamaKey heated up significantly during use.

Conclusion:
If you’re in the market for a USB key that is quirky, rugged, and affordable – look no further. Lacie’s iamaKey comes in 2 capacities – of 4GB or 8GB and it comes standard with a 2 year warranty. The 4GB version retails for $17.99 and the 8GB is $27.99.

The Good:
Adorable design, more rugged than your average USB key, affordable

The bad:
USB connector cap is easy to misplace