Lexar unveils Echo drives at CES2010

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Written by: Ian Markowitz

Lexar this week unveiled a whole slew of new memory devices two of which are easily geared towards the student mindset. At CES this week, they announced the Echo SE and the Echo ZE, both of which are USB flash drives aimed at the student on the go.

Both flash drives were specifically designed with netbooks and notebooks in mind, and come with automated backup software to automatically back up certain files or folders on the user’s computer. If you wanted to for example, you could have your computer automatically backup all your pictures and school documents as changes are made.

On top of that, the flash drive will keep as many copies of the file as you choose, allowing you to set up the flash drive so that the 10 (or as many as you choose) most recent versions of your GB301 presentation are kept. That way, should you make a mistake in your presentation, but the version from 5 saves ago was the right one, you could access the drive and grab the older version of the file.

Also, both flash drives boast 128-bit encryption, should you choose to carry national secrets in your pocket. Additionally, the drives are cross-platform (Mac and Windows only, sorry Linux users) and allow you to back up your data from a Windows PC and then restore the files to a Mac at home or vis a versa.

Now the two drives are virtually identical except in appearance and speed. The Echo SE is a faster USB drive, with read speeds of 28 MB/s and write speeds of 10 MB/s and also has a retractable USB connection which retracts into the body of the thumb drive. On the other hand, the Echo ZE is what is called a nail drive and really isn’t much bigger than the USB connector that it’s attached to as the picture below shows. The benefit to the ZE is that it’s a “set it and forget it” type drive. It’s designed to be left in the laptop and forgotten about so that it can continually backup the data.

Bentley students take note, the ZE is certainly a device you want to invest in, especially if you tend to abuse your laptop like many of you do and your hard drive keeps crashing. The SE comes in sizes up to 64GB and the ZE in sizes up to 32GB. The 64GB SE is expected to retail for around $250 and the 32GB ZE is expected to retail for around $140, both will be released in February of this year.

Ian can be reached at markowi_ian (AT) Bentley.edu