Gigastone Z30 128GB capless retractable USB drive with carbon fibre finish

Rank #8 in Best 128GB USB Flash Drives: 10 Ranked, and the Write Speeds the Boxes Hide

Gigastone Z30 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive

£28.99 4.3 from 327 Amazon ratings
Check price on Amazon

Price and rating as shown on Amazon when we collected them. Both change.

The Gigastone Z30 is a 128 GB USB stick with a capless retractable connector, a carbon-fibre-style body and a list price of £28.99. It sits at number 8 in this guide. The finding on its own listing is straightforward: unlike several drives here, it does not put a number where it has none. The read-speed field quotes 100 Megabytes Per Second. The write-speed field says only "[Faster than USB 2.0]", and the first bullet expands that to "Transfer speeds approximately 5 times faster than standard USB 2.0 Flash drives" — which is a comparison, not a figure. Where a listing like the SanDisk Ultra Flair copies its headline read speed straight into the write-speed field, the Gigastone leaves the write field without a MB/s number at all.

There is a second pair of numbers worth putting side by side. The listing reports 327 ratings and an overall score of 4.3 out of 5; the star breakdown supplied with it has bars of 70, 11, 9, 3 and 7, which add up to 100, not 327. Both figures come from the same listing, and they do not describe the same set of reviews. Everything on this page is taken from the Amazon listing for this product — we have not benchmarked the drive ourselves, and there are no transfer figures here beyond the ones printed above.

How those 327 ratings break down

An average hides its own shape. This is the spread behind the 4.3 stars.

5 star
70%
4 star
11%
3 star
9%
2 star
3%
1 star
7%

Specification

Exactly as published on the Amazon listing, field for field.

Price £28.99
Rating 4.3 out of 5 from 327 ratings
Read Speed 100 Megabytes Per Second (as listed)
Write Speed Faster than USB 2.0 — no MB/s figure given (as listed)
Memory Storage Capacity 128 GB
Hardware Interface USB, USB 3.0 — box contents say USB 3.2 Gen1 (as listed)
Model Name Gigastone Z30
Item Weight 13.6 g

What buyers actually say

Quoted from customer reviews on Amazon

Verified purchase

“I found this particular memory stick to be very responsive in reading data that I purchased for music audio content for the car. All the other memory sticks take up to a minute to register the content for the music player whereas this memory stick plays the music instantly. A great product at a very competitive price.”

Suvir Batra
Verified purchase

“Works fine good value for money will buy again.”

Robert

What it is up against

The rivals it was ranked against in Best 128GB USB Flash Drives: 10 Ranked, and the Write Speeds the Boxes Hide.

Questions people ask

What read speed does the Gigastone Z30 quote?

The listing's read-speed field gives 100 Megabytes Per Second. It is the only transfer figure with a number attached to it anywhere in the listing.

What write speed does the Gigastone Z30 have?

No figure is given. The write-speed field says "[Faster than USB 2.0]" and the first bullet says "Transfer speeds approximately 5 times faster than standard USB 2.0 Flash drives". Neither states a write speed in MB/s.

Which USB standard is the Gigastone Z30?

The listing is not consistent. The product name and the hardware-interface field say USB 3.0; the box contents and item type name say USB 3.2 Gen1; the colour field says "USB 3.2 1PK". The same listing also says it works with USB 2.0 and USB 3.1 interfaces.

How is the Gigastone Z30 rated?

4.3 out of 5 from 327 ratings. The star breakdown given with the listing has bars of 70, 11, 9, 3 and 7, which total 100 — so the breakdown and the 327 figure do not describe the same set of reviews.

What devices does the Gigastone Z30 work with?

The listing names desktop, laptop, tablet and television as compatible devices, and says it supports Windows 7 / 8 / 10 / Vista / XP / Unix / 2000 / ME / NT Linux and Mac OS, on both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 sockets.

What is in the box and how much does it cost?

£28.99 as listed. The box contents field names one Gigastone Z30 128GB USB 3.2 Gen1 flash drive, and both the number-of-items and number-of-packs fields say 1.

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