Posted December 2019
These "assembled-in-taiwan" HP v165w 64gb flash drives don't have the nice crystal blue and white appearance of the v165w flash drives that have HP packaging labeled as "product-of-korea". The blue plastic has the same look as the plastic that PNY flash drives are made of... in addition, the flash drives have a much smaller white HP logo, than do the product-of-korea v165w flash drives. So there is some unexpected difference in appearance.
On the retail packaging, there is a shiny round authenticity sticker made of foil. The sticker contains a number, as found on the metal part of the product-of-korea HP flash drives. Once you notice that the metal part of your assembled-in-taiwan flash drive, has "JUK64G v165w" printed on it (and there is no HP number), the authenticity sticker is not very reassuring... but perhaps that is why an authenticity sticker has been attached to the packaging.
These flash drives do appear to be an authorized HP product, but perhaps made with some PNY component ? The HP 256GB x900w USB 3.0 flash drive (P-FD256HP900-GE) is listed on the pny.com website, so there may be some association with PNY, even if just the plastic.
Write speed with an assortment of large video files was comparable to the product-of-korea v165w 32gb/64gb flash drive, but not any faster. Write speed was a steady 7.88 mb/sec (or about 1/2 gb per minute). 1GB per minute would be a good speed for USB 2.0, but this minimal write speed is adequate and expected.
All of the assembled-in-taiwan 64gb v165w flash drives that I received were formatted, checked for errors, and tested with a long file transfer. Unlike PNY flash drives of the same style and design, all of these HP flash drives were very consistent in their write speed. So I feel these are quality controlled for HP, and I rate them as acceptable.
Note, the flash drives did not get hot during a very long file copy, the caps were extremely tight, the packaging was very HP and indestructable, the format was ex-fat (128k), and there was no unpredictable software to block access by making the files "write protected".
This style and design of USB 2.0 flash drive is getting hard-to-find.
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UPDATE:
For testing purposes, I replaced a Korean-made 64gb HP flash drive with a Taiwan-made 64gb HP flash drive when I posted this review in December 2019... on April 2, 2020, the Taiwan-made HP failed. All data lost, and can not be formatted, useless. The Korean-made HP had been in the PVR as a recording media for nearly one year. The Taiwan-made HP died after only 4 months of service. Could be just bad luck, and I would buy another anyway, but reducing from 3 to 2 stars.
| Brand | HP |
|---|---|
| Item model number | P-FD32GHP165-GE |
| Hardware Platform | PC, Mac |
| Item Weight | 0.169 ounces |
| Product Dimensions | 5 x 6.75 x 0.5 inches |
| Item Dimensions LxWxH | 5 x 6.75 x 0.5 inches |
| Color | Blue |
| Manufacturer | hp |
| ASIN | B0052WT1OC |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Date First Available | June 2, 2011 |
