Intelligent Stick

by Adam Cochran
June 2004

A few months ago I received a call from the PQI folks asking me if I would be interested in reviewing their Intelligent Stick 2.0 product. By the description it sounded like any other USB flash memory drive.

When it arrived for review in the mail I was surprised at its size and included set of extras.

Like other USB flash memory drives, the Intelligent Stick plugs directly into your USB port. If you are using Windows XP, ME or 2000 no driver is necessary.

If you are Windows 98 or 98SE user the driver is included in the package on a mini-CDROM. This is a great feature in and of itself. A number of USB drives I have tried require the user to download the 98 driver from the Internet. This can be a real pain as many 98 computers only have a dial-up connection and the driver may be as much as three megabytes.

The drive is very tiny and thin (two pennies stacked in thickness, two pennies next to each other in length). It seems almost too fragile, for this reason PQI has included two extra pieces in the packaging: An adapter that will convert it into the size of the average USB flash drive and a credit card size carrier that you can slide the drive into for protection in your wallet.

I reviewed the 128MB version, but the Intelligent Stick 2.0 product is available in quantities up to 1 GB. With the USB 2.0 speeds that is almost like having an extra 1 gig hard drive on your system.

I think the intelligent stick is perfect for someone who needs to transport files from work or school to home and back again. And with the small size, you will feel like James Bond every time you use it.

Castellini on Computers Rating (1-5 mics)
Recommended Market:	Professionals, students and computer consultants who need to transport files between two or more computers.
Approximate cost:	$45(128MB)-$150(512MB)
Company and Web Site:	PQI [1]