Lexar Mercury JumpDrive Review

<!-- Generated by XStandard version 1.7.1.0 on 2006-12-16T17:09:10 -->

by Gerald Edgecomb

USB flash drives are a dime a dozen these days. Size and speed are the only things that really separate one from another. Lexar is trying to separate themselves further by including Ceedo’s PowerToGo software on all of their Mercury and Lightning JumpDrives. PowerToGo enables you to take your desktop with you, no matter where you go. I will go into more detail later, but first I want to look at the Mercury as a flash drive. The Mercury retails for $69.99 USD, but can be found for under $40.00 USD if you shop around.

Design

The Mercury has a very simple design. The only big difference here is the meter located on the front, which shows the amount of used space. It is a nice feature and comes in handy more often than I thought it would have. Other than that, the Mercury is fairly pedestrian, which is fine. This is not a beauty contest.

A meter on the Lexar Mercury displays how much storage has been used (view large image)

Performance

(view large image)

I was very surprised by the speed of the Mercury. Unfortunately, it was not a pleasant surprise. I tested it against an older basic Lexar JumpDrive I had lying around with a group of folders that totaled about 148MB. When reading from the drives the Mercury moved the files to its storage at a rate of 8.7 MB/s compared to the JumpDrive’s 8.2 MB/s. However, when writing to the notebook hard drive the Mercury transferred files at a dismal 3.2 MB/s, while the older JumpDrive moved the files at a faster 4.3 MB/s, resulting in a 13 second difference to move 148MB from the flash drive to the notebook hard drive. In Lexar’s defense, the Mercury is not listed as one of their speed rated drives, but it is only one of two drives they recommend to use with PowerToGo, which relies on speed somewhat. I was expecting better performance.

PowerToGo and Secure II

The Mercury comes bundled with PowerToGo and Secure II software. For those that have purchased a Mercury or Lightning JumpDrive, and it did not come with PowerToGo, you can download it free at Lexar’s site. PowerToGo allows you to take your favorite applications with you. For instance, a student using a computer at the library can plug in their Mercury JumpDrive and with PowerToGo, can use their favorite chat program. The best part is that PowerToGo installs nothing on the host computer. It is fully contained within the USB drive. The software allows you to install programs from a pre-approved list, including Firefox, Thunderbird, Skype, and many others. If there is a program not on the list, you can add InstallAnything for $24.95 USD. I tested PowerToGo on two machines, my older Pentium 4 desktop and my wife’s Inspiron 6000d. Overall performance is good, until you open several programs at once, then it starts to slow. The good news, I was able to install Firefox, Skype, and their arcade game pack without any issues. I even was able to update the pre-approved Firefox 1.5 to 2.0. PowerToGo would be great for the student using school computers or employees using a corporate computer, assuming they are allowed to use USB. Unfortunately, PowerToGo is aWindows only application (my primary machine is a MacBook Pro).

Secure II was also included on the drive. Secure II creates encrypted vaults and “shreds” files to make sure they are completely deleted. It worked well on my Windows machine, but I was unable to mount encrypted vaults on OS X, even after updating to the latest version.

It is nice that Lexar includes these for free with the Mercury. However, neither program would make me want to buy the Mercury over a cheaper, faster competitor. Secure II has many free open-source alternatives, and those who need application portability probably already have it, or will need to upgrade to the InstallAnything add-on, upping the price another $24.95 USD.

FireFox running on PowerToGo from the Lexar Mercury Flash Drive (view large image)

PowerToGo Start Menu (view large image)

A look at Skype installing on PowerToGo (view large image)

 

Conclusion

Given the poor write performance of the Mercury JumpDrive, I cannot recommend it over a cheaper, faster USB thumbdrive based solely on the included software. If performance and price were the same, then the Mercury would likely be my choice. I simply wish Lexar had paid a bit more attention to its write speed and not as much to a couple of programs the majority of customers do not need or want.

Pros

• Free space meter
• Included software useful for some
• Acceptable read speed

Cons

• Poor write speed

 

That memory meter is a neat and useful feature; I've heard of it but have never seen it before. It's a shame that the Mercury has such a poor read speed though. The last flash drive I bought (007 Sony Micro Vault) was slow too.

 

Nice writeup.

I despise all the "run executables" software that comes preinstalled on flash drives. The first thing I do is delete it all.

People used to get pissed when I'd plug a Cruzer Titanium into their notebook or desktop, and the first thing that pops up is the USB flash drive's install program. There still are people who are unfamiliar with the "desktop on a keychain" flash drives. They had these really annoyed looks that said, "what are you F-ing around with my compuer for?"

No one wants to deal with it; no one wants that junk on their computer. I think the key reason people have flash drives is to quickly transport and share information, period.

PowerToGo sounds like a step in the right direction, since it doesn't install programs/files on the host computer. But flash drives should come totally clean and free of programs. If people want remote desktop stuff on their drives, let them visit a website, download it, and install it.

 

Having FireFox on a flashdrive is definitely a useful thing, I've used it a couple of times on notebooks I'm reviewing where FF isn't installed. I think it would be more useful if you're in an area such as a campus that has lots of public computing centers and you want to browse the web using a browser that's already configured how you like it using it from the flash drive.

I also have the Cruzer Titanium and in general get kind of annoyed by the whole U3 experience as all I ever want to do 99% of the time is move files.

 

There is free, non-autorun Portable Firefox that will work on *any* flash drive, though. http://portableapps.com/.

I have 2 1GB U3 DataTravelers and the first thing I did was remove U3 and replace it with PortableFirefox and PortableThunderbird.

I use one exclusively for work and people would freak out when the U3 thing started.

 

Nice review, Gerald. I think the capacity meter and PowerToGo are some pretty cool features. Faster speeds would be nice, I agree.

 

Nice review! I like the meter on the front of the flash drive.

 

@FormFactor
I completely agree. When I buy a flash drive I buy it for storage, not to run programs. Andrew is right though, portable programs come in handy, but there are portable versions of many programs that do not require an entire environment on your key.

 

Nice review Cashmonee. I currently use my iPod nano whenever I need to transfer files, but having to carry the cable is awkward, so I was looking for a flash drive. This one from Lexar has a distinctive look, and some value-add features (mostly windows only I guess; but then, you can probably run most apps on Linux and OS X easily with a few symlinks and permission setting). Would you say the extra features are worth the extra price?

 

Not really. I personally would look for speed first and price second, then maybe consider the apps it comes with.

 

My next question would be, is there a removal tool for PowerToGo?

Because I really like that meter...

 

Can you run Outlook Express off the usb key? It looks like it's shown as one of the programs running on the lexar key but on the ceedo website Outlook Express isn't listed as an approved email client.

 

PowerToGo can be removed, according to Lexar.

 

Ya like the link says, just delete the files and you are good to go!

It should work, I did not specifically test it since I do not use Outlook Express. But, IE 6 was listed in the menu initially as well and worked fine. It seems as though it is installed by default.