Yego USB thumb drive and hub review

Some that's works or merely a fad?

10 December 2007 13:00 GMT / By Davey Winder

It isn’t the smallest (69 x 43.5 x 14.8mm) nor lightest (19.5g) USB thumb drive we have ever seen, nor is it the most secure, the biggest capacity or even the best looking. But it does provide something that we have not seen for a darn long time as far as these kind of portable memory devices are concerned, and that is innovation.

Just when we thought we had seen everything, the Yego comes along with one of those simple "I wish I had thought of that" concepts and shakes the market up. TraxData has adopted a Y-shaped design for more than just the aesthetic of it, each fork being home to an USB hub.

Yep, this is both a 2GB thumb drive and a two port USB hub in one. And why should you be bovvered? Good question. Our answer would be that it offers true flexibility in as far as both extending the usability of your notebook PC and extending your portable storage capacity.

The former probably being the most useful because all too often with smaller or cheaper notebooks in particular, by the time you have connected a thumb drive and maybe a mouse that is your peripheral capability used up.

What if you then need to connect something else such as an MP3 player, digital camera, PDA, smartphone or whatever? What if your notebook only has the one USB port and you want to transfer data from one thumb drive to another?

The Yego makes it all possible in the easiest way. We are less convinced by the never ending storage argument simply because it makes a lot more sense to buy an 8GB device than four of these 2GB ones – daisy chain them together and you would end up with some kind of wobbly DNA strand of memory devices hanging off your lappy!

For users on the move, and those who care about the environment, the Yego has a power saving mode that is both WEEE and RoHS compliant and reduces power consumption so extending battery life. For security conscious users there is a partition facility so you can store data in a secure fashion with password protection.

And that is pretty much it. You get a choice of whacky colour combinations, a USB 2.0 specification, driver-less installation and a LED to add to the 5 year warranty. But you also get the smug feeling of knowing you will never be short of USB connectivity ever again...

Verdict

We like innovation at Pocket-lint, and this is truly innovative. You get added functionality for no extra cost and without adding to the size of the device itself. A real win-win.

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Review Recap

Made by: Yego
Price as reviewed: £16
The good: Value, flexibility, innovation
The bad: Relatively small storage capacity
Quick verdict: We like innovation at Pocket Lint, and this is truly innovative
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