Kingston's 2TB Memory Stick Is World’s Highest Capacity Flash Drive

Up until near the end of the 2000s, storage devices called flash drives were all the rage. However, when external hard drives came along with their 500GB and up capacity, flash drives lost their place as the premier storage options for both casual and professional consumers. Kingston is aiming to change that with a thumb drive that can hold up to 2TB of data.

Kingston announced that the thumb drives will be available next month for purchase, Computerworld reports and that it will be able to hold up to 70 hours of 4K video data. The devices are part of the DataTraveler Ultimate Generation Terabyte line and are compatible with USB 3.1, which translates to fast data transfer. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the 24-pin Type-C connector, which is fully reversible.

Still, the high spec 2TB version should provide more than enough of a boon to justify interest, at least. Then again, since the prices haven’t been revealed as of yet, customers might want to hold on to their wallets for now.

Just for reference, however, the 1TB DataTraveler HyperX Predator by Kingston sold for about $1,000. According to the company, it’s likely that the new product will be cheaper at 40 to 45 cents per GB. That means that the 2TB DataTraveler Ultimate Generation Terabyte variant will likely cost an estimated price of about $900.

Others aren’t so optimistic about the chances of such a price range, however, with PC World putting the likely cost at about $2,730 if Kingston is reasonable. If not, that amount could easily double, but this is just speculation at this point.

As for why Kingston decided to sell such a device, the company’s Flash business manager, Jean Wong says that it’s all about mobility. Big things in small packages, basically.

"With the DataTraveler Ultimate GT, we empower users to increase their data storage mobility in a highly manageable form factor," Wong said. "This is a terrific follow-up to our 1TB drive released in 2013, and by doubling the capacity, users can store and carry even larger amounts of data easily."