The humble thumb drive has come of age. Available in capacities of up to 32 GB, they are starting to rival some hard drives. The sweet spot for thumb drives is the 8GB range. The best one that we tested was the Transcend JetFlash. This little drive doesn't have the fastest transfer speeds, but for the low asking price, it can't be beat. It comes with a retractable connector, software that lets you synchronize files and programs, and an option to encrypt part of the disk. In our tests, this drive managed read speeds of 22 MB/s, and write speeds of 4.5 MB/s. Though our second place pick - the Sandisk Cruzer Contour - was almost twice as fast, it was twice as expensive as well.

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The Sandisk Cruzer Contour was the fastest drive we tested, averaging read speeds of 30 MB/s, and write speeds of 12.5 Mb/s. The build quality is top notch, with the metal body and the smooth retracting mechanism deserving praise. The Kingston Data Traveller Privacy Edition came in third. This drive is built like a tank, and the security features protect your data.