In 2012, SanDisk reportedly owned 27% of the USB flash market share in South Africa. Toward the end of 2012, the company announced its Cruzer Pop series in South Africa, adding to the already long line-up of USB flash drives available. The Pop is so named because the flash drives ‘pops up’ from the middle, folding to half its length when plugged into your PC or laptop.
The Pop was designed with the younger generation in mind, available in three vibrant patterns. These include a Checkboard metallic finish, Splashed Paint and Tribal Red. The flash drive is only 3.78mm thick, making it thin enough to fit into your wallet if required. Its available in storage capacities of between 4 and 32GB, although it may be a little trickier finding the 32GB variants in the South African market. The Pop is pre-installed with SanDisk’s, now default, SecureAccess software for data encryption, and offers 2GB of free cloud storage by means of YuuWaa.
On the not so brilliant side, the Pop is only USB 2.0 compatible, which slows down transfers somewhat, which is quite notable when attempting to fill anything from 4GB onward. In its ‘popped’ state, the device seems rather flimsy. I can only assume that this was a preventative measure to avoid it from easily snapping in half, but it comes across as cheap rather than novel.
The Cruzer Pop has a recommended retail price ofR99.00 for 8GB and R130.00 for 16GB ex. VAT, which isn’t a bad price at all. You can find the 16GB Splashed Paint and Tribal Red variants at any DionWired store for R130. Although the Pop may appeal to the younger generation, say school kids, I personally prefer the Cruzer Fit series at a slightly higher price, but is small enough to fit into your jeans’ Tickey pocket (if they still have those).
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