PQI Announces 16 GB USB Card Drive

June 7, 2006 By Geoff Duncan

PQI has unveiled a sleek credit card-thin Card Drive USB drive with capacities of 1, 2, and 4 GB - and (coming soon) 8 and 16 GB editions.

Taiwan’s PQI has unveiled a new credit card thin versions of its Card Drive U510 USB storage devices with capacities ranging from 1 to (coming soon) 16 GB. The drive itself is only 0.12 thick (a mere 3.05 mm), weighs just 0.7 oz (under 20 g) and connects to USB 1.1/2.0 ports with a unique Intelligent Stick retractable connector which stows away inside the drives credit card form factor.

The Card Drive will come preloaded with USB Notebook file manager (for Windows only, although the drives should work fine as storage with Macs and Linux systems): the software enabled Windows users to synchronize email, backups documents, IE favorites, accounts information and security functions.

The Card Drives will be available in silver and grey (ooh, what selection!) and a limited soccer ball edition. The 1 GB model is priced at $49.99, with the 2 GB and 4 GB models coming in at $89.99 and $139.99. The 8 GB and 16 GB editions are expected to ship in early July, and, sadly, PQI hasn’t released any pricing information.

Showing 6 comments

Sam Chen at 1:01pm 8th June 2006 Yes it has got to be flash based at that size. There is no hard drive that small out there yet.
Paul at 12:25pm 8th June 2006 Yeah it may be small enough to put in your wallet but I wouldnt try it. Anyone know if it is flash based? I would assume so with the smaller capacities.
Tim Stevens at 12:14pm 8th June 2006 Wow, super small! I wonder how durable that usb connector is though. Break that and you are screwed.
Diggbot at 12:11pm 8th June 2006 This is a sweet item, would love to use it for security purposes etc.
Backi at 12:11pm 8th June 2006 So will this actually fit in your wallet?
Frank J. at 5:01pm 7th June 2006 Wow I am seriously impressed, I would love to get the 16GB version when its available.