Buffalo Firestix USB 2.0 Flash Drive

Although not the prettiest of devices, and far and away the largest, the Buffalo drive is also the fastest, just pipping Sony’s device in the transfer race but significantly faster than the majority of its rivals. It has a physical lock on the casing so you can protect your data from accidental erasure and a short USB extension cable means you don’t have to scrabble around at the back of your computer if that’s the only place you’ve got USB ports. The lid has a pen-style clip for securing it in your shirt pocket and a place to hook a keyring if you don’t mind the drive itself being the bit that’s attached.

Price-wise this is middle of the road but its performance makes it something of a bargain if you’re likely to be doing a lot of work with big files.