Quirky Split Stick Review

The Split Stick from Quirky initially seems like a cute idea: two 4GB USB flash drives in one. One side slides out for your work stuff; the other side can be used for your personal stuff. Never mind that 4GB flash drives really aren’t so expensive that you can’t just buy two separate ones. And never mind that you can already separate your work and personal stuff by creating folders on a regular thumb drive. And never mind that the Split Stick, doesn’t even work very well.

The Good: Cool design, choice of colors

The Bad: Doesn't always work, slow read speeds

My first problem with the Split Stick came when Quirky sent the first review sample. The packaging says "Try Me!" right on front, indicating you should try sliding the button back and forth. I tried this … and the button fell right out of the Split Stick on the floor. It popped back in after I finally found it (the thing is pretty darn tiny), but it was clear this was a major flaw.

I contacted Quirky to inquire about the flaw, and a spokeswoman said they were aware of it. She said the first manufactured batch of Split Sticks had been defective, and that they had corrected the problem (it turns out I wasn't the only person this had happened to). According to the spokeswoman, I must have accidentally received one of the leftover ones, and she promised to send me a new one.

I waited to write this review until I received the second sample. Upon receiving it, I tried sliding the button back and forth while it was still in the packaging, and it worked just fine. You can pull the button out of if you try hard enough, but I doubt most people would try to intentionally damage their USB drives.

Unfortunately, the second Split Stick wasn't perfect either. Although I would push one drive out, it would often retract just slightly when I slid it into my laptop's USB port. This meant that my laptop either wouldn't register it, or it would continuously register and unregister it -- not something you want when you're saving files.

When I copied 241MB of photos over to the Split Stick, it took about one minute, 21 seconds (in my completely unscientific testing environment). Although a computer's performance can affect read and write speeds, this is much too slow.

The Split Stick costs $24.99 on the Quirky website; this is on the high end for an 8GB flash drive, especially since you're really buying two 4GB drives. Given the read speeds, you can do better with other manufacturers.

Design

The best thing about the Split Stick is its aesthetics. Constructed of anodized aluminum with a complementary rubber outer membrane, they seem like they can withstand an everyday beating. You can choose from orange, black and pink, and Quirky offers a selection of etchings for each side of the flash drive.

Bottom Line

The Split Stick is a good-looking USB flash drive with a creative concept. Unfortunately, it didn't perform reliably, and it's not the best buy considering its slow speed.