Lexar recently announced updates to several of its JumpDrive line, including replacing its P10 drives with a faster, higher capacity P20 drives. The P20 is built for speed, and certainly delivers with reported transfer rates of 400MB/s read and 270MB/s write. Lexar estimates that a full HD movie transfers in about 40 seconds. It predecessor, the Lexar P10, was one of the fastest flash drives available at the time of its release, as is the P20. Its impressive boost in performance coupled with modern capacity standards (available in 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB) makes the P20 line well equipped to serve media enthusiasts and professionals.
Lexar recently announced updates to several of its JumpDrive line, including replacing its P10 drives with a faster, higher capacity P20 drives. The P20 is built for speed, and certainly delivers with reported transfer rates of 400MB/s read and 270MB/s write. Lexar estimates that a full HD movie transfers in about 40 seconds. It predecessor, the Lexar P10, was one of the fastest flash drives available at the time of its release, as is the P20. Its impressive boost in performance coupled with modern capacity standards (available in 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB) makes the P20 line well equipped to serve media enthusiasts and professionals.
Lexar included Encrypt Stick Lite software with the P20 drives, which provides 256-bit AES encryption. Users can create a password-protected vault, the contents of which are automatically encrypted and unrecoverable after deletion. The flash drive itself has a sleek finish with a key ring loop and thumb-retracted connector.
The Lexar P20 line comes in capacities of 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB for a street price of $40, $72, and $116, respectively. The entire line comes with a limited lifetime warranty.
Specifications
- Available capacities
- 32GB (LJDP20-32CRBNA), 400MB/s read 150MB/s write
- 64GB (LJDP20-64CRBNA), 400MB/s read 270MB/s write
- 128GB (LJDP20-128CRBNA), 400MB/s read 270MB/s write
- Connectivity: USB 3.0 (USB 2.0-compatible)
- Compatibility: Windows and Mac
- Warranty: Lifetime limited
Design and Build
Lexar gave the P20 flash drive a clean look; it is completely black except for its subtle metallic base and modest white branding across the top. However, its glossy mirror finish seems like it could easily collect blemishes. Lexar describes the drive as generally durable.
It features a capless design with a thumb-retracted connector. Also included is a standard key ring loop.
Performance
In this review, we have included the following comparables from our database of USB flash drive reviews:
Using our HP Z620 Workstation Testing Platform running Windows 8.1, we measured transfer speeds from the Lexar P20 with IOMeter. The Lexar P20 posted competitive numbers in both read and write, with 270.909MB/s and 121.123MB/s, respectively. The Patriot Supersonic Rage 2 was the top performer in terms of read functions with 274.94MB/s (134.75MB/s write). The SanDisk Extreme PRO posted 229MB/s and 211MB/s in read and write, respectively, and the Lexar M20 posted 155.26MB/s and 38.66MB/s.
When switching to random large-block transfers, the Lexar P20 fell to third place in read functions with 215.44MB/s, but its standing was unchanged in terms of write (2.337MB/s). The Patriot Supersonic Rage 2 was once again the top flash drive in terms of read functions with 242.96MB/s, but had the slowest write overall (0.995MB/s). The SanDisk Extreme PRO did well in both read and write with 229MB/s and 66.4MB/s, respectively. The Lexar M20 had a read and write of 127.7MB/s and 9.7MB/s, respectively.
Our last flash drive benchmark measures 4K random transfer performance in IOPS. The Lexar P20 excelled in this benchmark, posting 1,860 IOPS in read (although only 1.15 IOPS in write). The Patriot Supersonic Rage 2 posted 1,546.4 IOPS and 0.57 IOPS in read and write, respectively, and the Lexar M20 posted 961.27 IOPS and 44.45 IOPS.
Conclusion
The Lexar P20 flash drive is marketed as one of the fastest flash drives available, and is optimized for use by professionals and media enthusiasts. It comes with standard encryption capabilities, and is well designed and simplistic. It has a range of capacities from 32GB to 128GB and comes with a limited lifetime warranty.
The drive held up well against other recently reviewed flash drives, posting 274.94MB/s in sequential read, 215MB/s in random large-block read, and 1,860 IOPS in 4K read. Its write transfers weren't quite as impressive, but they were in the right range.
Pros
- Excellent 4k random transfer performance (read)
- Streamlined design
Cons
- Write performance has room for improvement
The Bottom Line
The Lexar P20 would aptly serve most media enthusiasts or professionals looking to quickly transfer large data libraries.
