Verbatim Tuff n Tiny Review

You can't get much smaller than Verbatim's Tuff n Tiny USB flash drive. The drive, which comes in 2GB, 4GB and 8GB capacities, is a little more than an inch wide and about half an inch thick. Because of its size, this is a USB drive you'll want to use for traveling -- not necessarily backing up crucial items.

The Good: astoundingly small, nice price, password protection

The Bad: easy to misplace, connector uncovered

The Tuff n Tiny comes in three colors, a different one for each capacity: purple for 8GB, green for 4GB, and orange for 2GB. The colors are bold and bright -- a good thing because this flash drive could easily go missing. A small lanyard is attached for clipping to key chains and the like.

The connector of the USB isn’t covered, which makes me wonder about the potential for damage. It’s not every day that you see your computer peripherals exposed like this. Verbatim does say in the drive’s manual that the Tuff n Tiny is “resistant to everyday encounters with rough handling, water, dust, and ESD (electro static discharge).”

The Tuff n Tiny slides easily into the USB port on a laptop (just make sure you slide it in with the logo facing down). It protrudes from the computer just slightly more than a nano USB receiver of a wireless mouse, although you definitely would not want to leave the Tuff n Tiny in when you pack up the laptop.

Verbatim says read and write speeds are 30MBps and 10MBps, respectively. When I transferred 241MB of photos over to the 8GB version, it took 20 seconds (in my completely unscientific testing facility). Keep in mind that your computer's performance can affect read and write speeds.

It's a USB 2.0 device, although it is backward compatible with USB 1.1.

The VSafe 100 Security Application comes preloaded on the drive, which lets you password-protect your files. This can only be used with Windows Vista, XP or 2000, unfortunately.

At an amazingly small size, the Tuff n Tiny is almost worth buying just to astonish your friends (if you have extra-geeky friends like I do). A USB drive attached to your keychain will come in handy more often than you think, and this is the perfect size for those moments. At around $30 for the 8GB version, it's not going to set you back much. I wouldn't, however, suggest it as a permanent site for those baby photos you've been meaning to back up. Get yourself an external hard drive for that.

Disclosure: Review samples were provided by the manufacturer. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.