HP v236w 16GB USB 2.0 Pen Drive, Multi

It is good enough for school use but for stuff more than that it’s not fast enough. 1 GB file takes 10 minutes to transfer on USB 2.0 and 3.2 it reduces to 5 min

Is good

Got 2 of this 32GB HP v236w pendrives this morning. Review is based on testing done the same day:

Summary:
The product is genuine and sturdy, but the performance is just about average, based on a random file copy performance to fill the entire space.

Pros & Cons (comparing with SanDisk Cruiser Blade 32 GB) :
Pros-
1. Solid body, looks and feels great.
2. Read speed is fine (22 MB/s).
3. Product is genuine, covered under 2 Year manufacturer warranty.

Cons –
1. Fits too tight in usb port, thus causing more wear to the port and may even damage it if not used carefully.
2. Capacity is 31 GB (precisely 31042043904 bytes), not 32 as advertised. In windows it’ll show up as a 28.9 GB drive compared to 29.8 in Sandisk. No big deal, just a technical observation.
3. Write speed (3.3 MB/s) is not bad, but slightly inferior to its close competitor Sandisk cruiser blade which easily gives 4 to 4.4 MB/s for the same test.
4. Warranty is only 2 years, compared to 5 years on Sandisk. But since almost nobody claims warranty after 2 years, and besides- the plastic body of Sandisk gets physically damaged in 2 years anyway, so it’s okay for me.

Bottomline:
It’s good enough for casual users, maybe chosen over Sandisk for its look, feel and sturdiness. Frequent users may want to look for better options- with easier port fitting and better write speed.

Details:
The product name is HP v236w as shown on its packing (the images in listing are correct) while its part number is FD236W-32, so slightly confusing but both are the same thing.

Testing whether it is genuine or fake:
The bottom of the hologram sticker on the packing has a silver layer with “scratch and check” written on it. Scratching it reveals a 20-digit code beneath it, and the right edge of the sticker has the url “www.pny.com.tw” to verify this code. Go to support > product authentication page on that url. That page contains instructions and explanation of the results that you may get. Mine were originals, with the codes tested for the first time (repeat test result will be a warning that the code was tested before).

So that means it is covered under 2 year manufacturer warranty, as declared by hp for Aisa Pacific region.

Design and build quality : Sturdy, stylish but with a design flaw-

It is exactly as shown in the picture. The body is a solid steel case with open front and the back sealed with a black plastic cap. The plastic back fits perfectly and gives it a stylish look, though it may come off later. The HP logo, product code etc are embossed on the steel body so likely won’t be erased with time. Overall, it looks and feels great. The flaw I noticed was that it takes significantly more strength to push it into the usb port, compared to other usb devices like generic usb cables or usual plastic pendrives like Sandisk. You almost have to fight with it to push it in or pull it out. This means its frequent use can wear out the usb port too soon, or may even break it if not used carefully.

Capacity : 31 GB, not 32, will appear as 28.9 GB in windows-

It is advertised as a 32 GB drive but the actual capacity is 31GB, and yes, I’m fully aware of the decimal vs binary calculation difference, I’m a hardcore linux user. To be precise, its exact capacity is 31042043904 bytes (on both pendrives I tested). So in windows it will show up as a 28.9 GB drive. In linux it will show up as either 31 GB, or 28.9 GiB (binary calculation like windows). For comparison, my 32GB Sandisk shows up as 32010928128 bytes, or 32 GB, or 29.8 GiB. This loss of 1 GB in a 32GB pendrive is no big deal for me, just a technical observation.

Performance:
Read speed: about 20-22 MB/s
Write speed: about 3.3 MB/s
Tested with : a collection of ISO files ranging from about 350MB to 4GB, along with a few smaller files like pdf or txt. Total size of the collection was about 30.2 GB (28.2 GiB).

I did this testing on linux, so to be fair, the write performance may be slightly better on windows as it works better with fat32 that the pendrive comes formatted as.
(Edit: No performance difference on Windows either. Formatted as exFAT on windows 10 to make it multiboot with YUMI. Read-write speeds were same while copying ISO files to it, or reading them to load in memdisk while booting.)

I could do more accurate testing with tools like dd command but didn’t bother as the difference usually isn’t very significant.

Easy to use