Introduction



At first I want to thank the Apacer representatives for providing me their Handy Steno AH328 Flash Drive for testing and reviewing.



The new AH328 flash drive from Apacer has a nice metallic-like design, it is decorated with four screw-cap carvings and does feature a retractable USB connector. In terms of performance it has mediocre performances, but for transferring small files its more than enough.

About the Apacer Company
Apacer Technology Inc. is a global leader in memory module and digital storage hardware and software. Since the company's inception, Apacer's focus on recording, reproducing and retaining all types of digital data has been the driving force in providing customers with the best memory products and services.

Apacer understands the importance of data and how consumers use data. Through customer feedback and strong market research, Apacer's young, creative and dynamic team culture develops products that are innovative in design, engineered for high reliability using state-of-the-art technology, and that match consumer needs. The Apacer brand promises consumers they can "Access the best" memory modules and digital storage products and services.

Apacer gives customers access to a global memory module manufacturer and supply chain whose products have been independently tested as some of the best on the market in performance, reliability and value. Apacer offers the most innovative flash memory products utilized in today's music, video, phone, and gaming devices. With digital content becoming an ever greater part of everyday life, Apacer also provides the newest and most exciting digital mobile entertainment devices available.

Product Overview

Handy Steno AH328 leads the pack in the market with stylish and professional design. It showcases a metal-like, hairline and silver case with an etched Apacer logo and four refined screw-cap carvings on the corners, exuding sophistication and understated elegance. In addition to the well designed exteriors, AH328 encompasses many useful features on the back. The strap hole allows the user to carry or attach this nifty USB drive easily, offering true portability and convenience. And the sliding push key on the back integrates the functionality of a retractable USB drive and look of an exquisite high-tech product.

Features



Specifications

Packaging

The little flash drive from Apacer comes in a blister package. Because of the transparent plastic, we can see most of the insides: we get lifetime warranty with the product, on the top part we can see the total capacity and the Apacer logo and the product code name a little to the left.
On the frontal part we can also see that the product does feature a retractable USB connector and a hole to fit in a strap:



On the back of the box, we can see the product description in multiple languages, supported operating systems and the logo of an application that can be optionally installed, named ACE:



Further inside, if we open the package, we can see on the inside that we are instructed to use the “Safe Remove Hardware” function, to avoid damage to the USB Flash Drive:



On the top of the product, we can find a metal-like silver case which imitates brushed aluminum; in the center we can also find the Apacer logo:



Also on the frontal part we, can find in each corner some plastic screws imitations:



On the back, there is a hole to fit in a strap, if we have one available:



On the bottom of the drive, we can find a little black button, which needs to be pressed a little before sliding it to the frontal part of the drive:



Here is a photo which shows the frontal part of the drive, in an closed position; we can see that the USB connector is fully protected by the rest of the flash drives’ body:



By simply pressing and sliding the central black plastic button, we can get the USB metal connector out and prepare the flash drive for insertion in a spare USB port:

The tests

The testbench is composed from the ASUS X55SV laptop, the one that I have used for all the Flash Drive tests I have done before and the operating system was Windows 7 x64.
When we insert the flash drive, we can see a green SMD led flashing through the transparent metallic painted top:



The drive comes completely empty, formatted FAT32:



To test the flash drives speeds, I usually use the HD Tune Pro utility, version 4.01. With this flash drive, I had some problems making this program to work. After I have inserted the drive and it was recognized perfectly fine, I wanted to run the HD Tune Pro utility. I have waited for several minutes and nothing was happening. Then I went to check Task Manager and the application was staying there, doing nothing; killing the executable was not possible, neither the “Safely device removal” procedure. I have then tried to restart the computer; windows has locked at the “Logging off…” message and the only thing I could do was to press Reset.

After the computer reboot, I have decided to try again and the application was also staying locked inside Task Manager; when I have removed the flash drive without the safe remove procedure, the program started to run immediately.
I would also like to mention that I’ve got the same HD Tune behavior on two different systems, the laptop with Windows 7 x64 and my Media Center with Windows Xp.

Trying the freeware version of the HD Tune, version 2.55 seemed a good idea, it did not give me any errors at all.



Summary Graph (Read Performance)



To measure the real life performance, I have used the Total Commander application to copy to the flash drive and from the flash drive the same file and recorded the transfer speeds, when they have stabilized.

File Copy



File Read



Summary Graph(Real-life performance)

Conclusive thoughts

The Handy Steno AH328 flash drive from Apacer has a nice design, imitates brushed aluminum on top of its body, decorated with the four screw-cap carvings. We can see a nice effect when the drive is operating, with the blinking green SMD LED.

This product also does feature a retractable USB connector, which saves us the trouble of keeping eyes on a protective cap; there is though a downside with this type of design: after some time the mechanism can wear out and when we would need to insert the connector inside a spare USB port, it might not hold any more.

Regarding its performance compared to the other flash drives I have tested in the past, I could say it is mediocre, at both copy and read speeds.

I would like to thank again to Apacer for making this review possible!