The Tech Report reviews the Kanguru eFlash – eSATA Flash Drive and discusses the state of the industry regarding USB3.0 and eSATA adoption.

So what about external Serial ATA? eSATA ports have slowly become common on even mid-range motherboards, and they’ve even popped up in a few laptops. The interface is plenty quick, too, offering transfer rates up to 300MB/s. But eSATA is just a data pipe, so it can’t provide connected drives with power. That has to come from an external source, which has typically involved bulky power adapters for eSATA enclosures that plug into wall sockets. Auxiliary cables are cumbersome at best, and they’re certainly not appropriate for pocket-sized flash drives.

Fortunately, a better solution exists. A hybrid eSATA/USB connector has been developed that elegantly melds USB and external Serial ATA plugs.

The eFlash once again scored highly on speed benchmarks and the PCI adaptor kit was noted as a “perfect addition” to the package.

Data Backup, Portable Storage