Patriot Supersonic Magnum 2 256GB Flash Drive Review

Patriot continues to produce high capacity pen drives with the Magnum 2 lineup. Today we take a close look at the Supersonic 256GB model.

Published
Updated
Manufacturer: Patriot Memory
2 minutes & 32 seconds read time
TweakTown's Rating: 83%

The Bottom Line

Offering quite solid read performance, the Patriot Supersonic Magnum 2 256GB flash drive is a good product for those needing high capacity solution on a budget.
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Three years ago, I had the chance when first starting here at TweakTown to review the original Supersonic Magnum from Patriot. Now with the latest technology, a successor has been launched, accurately dubbed the Magnum 2.

Apart from the internals and exterior color, the Magnum 2 shares quite a bit with its predecessor. Patriot has stayed with the large footprint of the original as I'm sure it enables them the room to deploy such a large amount of flash along with keeping the aluminum capped design. Marketing materials suggest this new solution is capable of 400 MB/s read and 300 MB/s writes, making it ideal for desktop and portable PCs, offering 256GB and 512GB capacity options.

Compatibility includes Windows, OS X, and Linux Kernel 2.4+. MSRP of the 256GB Supersonic Magnum 2 is $129.99 with a five-year warranty.

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The packaging for the Magnum 2 is quite simple. Marketing information is listed across the top and bottom with the capacity to the right.

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On the backside, there is additional information in several languages including the mention of USB 3.1 Gen 1 support.

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Taking a look at the drive, we find it quite similar to the original Magnum. This time around the exterior has been coated black with branding and capacity in white. This is a capped design but to ease your mind the cap can be stored at the back of the drive.

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The Patriot SS Magnum 2 is factory formatted with the exFAT file system, ensuring compatibility between Windows and Macintosh computers. The usable capacity after formatting is 235GB.

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Starting off testing, read and write performance for the Magnum 2 came in at 313 MB/s read and 173 MB/s write.

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After 11 months at the top of our price/performance charts, the Rage 2 finally gets passed up by the Magnum 2.

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A quick look at the Anvils chart has the Magnum 2 as the fifth quickest drive we have tested.

The Magnum 2 is one of the larger drives on the market in both footprint and capacity. At 256GB, you will be forking over quite a few of your hard earned dollars to get anything much larger. The build quality is quite solid and in my testing I had no issues with this drive dropping over the numbers of times I plugged it in.

Performance, as you seen in our charts above, was quite good but did fall under the prescribed marketing numbers. In read and write, I was able to reach 313 MB/s read and 173 MB/s write and those numbers were shadowed with our new Z170 test system as well. Anvils did give the Magnum2 some love with an overall storage score of 754 making it the fifth quickest we have seen. Price/performance may be heating up this year with NAND prices dropping to near 41 cents per GB as we seen with the Samsung T3.

Overall, for a high capacity flash drive solution, the Magnum 2 is a worthy successor to its original and a solid solution for those in the market.

Tyler's Test System Specifications

Performance 80%
Quality including Design and Build 85%
General Features 85%
Bundle and Packaging 75%
Value for Money 89%
Overall 83%

The Bottom Line: Offering quite solid read performance, the Patriot Supersonic Magnum 2 256GB flash drive is a good product for those needing high capacity solution on a budget.

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DEDeutschland: Finde andere Technik- und Computerprodukte wie dieses auf Amazon.de

Tyler joined the TweakTown team in 2013 and has since reviewed 100s of new techy items. Growing up in a small farm town, tech wasn't around, unless it was in a tractor. At an early age, Tyler's parents brought home their first PC. Tyler was hooked and learned what it meant to format a HDD, spending many nights reinstalling Windows 95. Tyler's love and enthusiast nature always kept his PC nearby. Eager to get deeper into tech, he started reviewing.

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