Iomega Zip 750 USB2.0 Drive review

12 November 2003 10:11 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Since its original incarnation this humble zip disk has come a long way. Launched at a time when 100Mb was still a large amount of space the disk while still widely used has had a hard time fending off the likes of CD-RWs, USB keys and other such devices. It is no surprise therefore to see the Zip 750 with its USB2.0 connectivity arriving on the pocket-lint.co.uk review desk.

Since its 250Mb version the drive has gone through little change. Size wise it is still the same and the only main difference is the introduction of a metal case - obviously in an attempt to appeal to travellers uses to bashing them around in the bottom of a bag.

Because the drive is compatible with all previous disk sizes - there new 750Mb disks are identical to previous versions and if you’ve invested heavily in the zip disk ethos this is welcomed news.

When it comes to performance, because of the drives adoption of the USB2.0 format transfer speeds have been drastically increased. This drive promises transfer rates of 7Mb a second when using USB2.0 and that equates to 50x read 50x write, and 50x rewrite speeds.

Verdict

With CD media and CD writer drives becoming so cheap, the appeal that Iomgea's Zip Drive once held is very quickly being lost. When the drives first surfaced 100Mb was 71 times the amount you could hold on a 1.4Mb floppy. Since that time though the consumer has been bombarded with cheaper alternatives and unless your business relies on the zip disk to function this technology is fast running out of time. At 750Mb this is the same size as a CD but costs more, and doesn't have the same playability everywhere else other than on a 750Mb Zip drive. Good but slowly becoming redundant.

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Review Recap

Made by: Iomega
Price as reviewed: £80
The good: Backwards compatible so you can keep your old disks
The bad: Market slowly eaten away by solid state and optical media
Quick verdict: Iomega saw the writing on the wall and has its own range of CD/DVD Burners, so best transfer all old ZIP backups to optical.
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