USB drives are normally just plain little devices without a lot of doodads. USModular has changed that by adding a light and pen.

Features

While everyone else is going smaller and smaller with their USB drives, USModular is getting bigger and I am not talking about storage space. The USModular Handy Drive is the largest USB drive I have ever seen. The larger size may not be a bad thing. One of the biggest complaints about small USB drives is that they are easy to loose.

The bigger size is not all empty space, USModular has taken that empty space and filled it with an LED flash light and a ball point pen.

Design

The Handy Drive is not all bulk. The size of the Handy Drive is about 1/2″ X 1 1/2″ X 2 3/4″. There is one slider on each side, the left one for the USB drive and the right one for the pen. The button on the top is for the light. On the back is a loop for a key chain or something.

The Handy Drive comes in sizes ranging from 128 MB to 4 GB. The price for the 128 MB version $19.99 and it goes up from there. I have seen the 1 GB version for as little as $29.99.

Performance

All of the Handy Drive’s features work just they are suppose to. The USB drive itself is not the fastest that I have ever seen, but you can easily use this drive to store your files. Because of the size of the Handy Drive, using the pen is not the easiest thing to do. You will eventually find a comfortable position, but it is not as easy to hold as a real pen. The pen also does not have a lot of ink and it may be difficult to replace, so once you run out, a portion of the Handy drive will be useless. The light is small and does not put out a lot of light, but it is enough to light up a car key hole, or lighten things up a bit in a totally dark room. If there is any light at all, then the Handy Drives light will not work very well. The light runs off two small batteries that unfortunately do not get charged up when you have it plugged in to a USB port. You can however replace them by opening up the case and putting new ones in.

Warranty and Support

USModular provides a one year warranty. I could not find out any more information about the warranty, but I doubt it covers the batteries or the ink in the pen. So if you run out you are out of luck.

Conclusion

This USB drive is definitely unique, but I am not sure it will meet the needs of very many people. Once the ink runs out of the pen and the batteries die on the light, and you don’t replace them, you are left with nothing but a huge USB drive. If you are one who loses USB sticks a lot, then you could use the extra size and key chain loop to make it easier to find. On the other hand, a lot of smaller USB sticks now come with key chain loops so you won’t lose them. If you don’t lose USB sticks then you can get them for a lot cheaper.

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