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PQI Cool Drive U350H
Software
No discussion of the Power Quotient International Cool Drive U350H can be complete without first talking about the software included with the drive. The drive is shipped with a software package in it called Webaroo, Webaroo is supposed to be a content management system aimed at portable devices (think PDAs and cellphones), which made me wonder why it was on my flash drive. Webaroo offers content packs aimed for people with differing interests and is supposed to keep you up to date while you’re on the go the same way RSS feeds keep you up to date when you’re at your computer, sounds great doesn’t it? Problem is to even give you that much information about the program I had to do quite a bit of research, I consider myself technically savvy, but the way that this software blitzes you with information makes me realize how the French must have felt in WWII.
They launch the install utility immediately after putting it in your computer and it extracts Webaroo, which then tries to get you to configure it and download “web packs”. At no point is it explained how any of this process works, how it could benefit you, or even how to just save a file onto your brand new flash drive. Ten minutes of looking later I find an FAQ, which informs me that Webaroo is made for laptops and mobile devices. Next, they hit me with a description of what it does that made me wonder if all they do is link Google caches to mobile devices. Check out the screen shot from their FAQ, confused as to why this is on a flash drive yet? I sure am.
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Instantly extracts |
The screen the first greets you |
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The Awesome FAQ |
Notice for more information they want you to E-mail |
Hate it or love it, Windows does have the solution for the terrible software included with this drive. You guessed it, format.
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The quick fix for Webaroo |
Conclusions
The Power Quotient International U350H is an impressive looking flash drive, there is no doubt that the design is unique and that it is durable. The main problem I had with the drive was the terrible software that came with, other than that it's pretty solid. As for the drives performance, it was about average, winning out over a number of older USB drives. I think, however, that there are faster ones on the market if you’re really interested in a Vista ReadyBoost drive, so look around. That said, for toting files around and for use as a backup mechanism I would definitely recommend this drive, it won’t break easy and it’s 8 GB of storage leave plenty of room for large files (Note: Reformat to NTFS to store more than 4 GB in one file).
Pros
- Stylish
- Plenty of room for even large files
- Pretty good benchmark performance
Cons
- Webaroo
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REAL TIME PRICING ON THE PQI COOL DRIVE