On Our Desk - 17

A-Data T806 Kissing Octopus Drive

Manufactuer: A-Data
UK Price (as reviewed): TBC
US Price (as reviewed): $18.99 (exc. Tax)

When these USB drives came into the office we were so lost for words that it’s a surprise that this isn’t just a blank page. Though, to be completely fair, that may have more to do with the way we actually received the product, more than the drives themselves.

We got sent two of the T806 Kissing Octopus Drives (which is apparently the full, official name) by A-Data. Each one is just over a cubic inch and each one came in a pretty little box that was about the size of a floppy disk in height and width, about an inch and a half in depth.

Nothing remarkable there, except each box was wrapped in bubble-wrap, sealed in a standard size padded envelope – which was itself inside an even larger envelope. The full package may have only contained a pair of ludicrous novelty USB sticks, but it was almost a foot across and was dense with padding and surplus paper. It’s a good thing we recycle.


The fun didn’t end there though for the T806 Kissing Octopus Drives, oh no. Richard had known exactly what the package was going to contain before we opened it and attempted to catch our reactions on film as we opened the boxes. Owing to the poor lighting of the bit-tech labs and the rapid body movements that are so characteristic of a highly-caffeinated Harry he unfortunately failed in his attempt, but we doubt any medium could really convey our confusion anyway.

Each T806 is a rubber caricature of an octopus with hearts for eyes and a weird sucker-thing for a mouth. The lips of the sucker are magnetised and the entire oral portion can be pulled out to reveal a USB port that gives access to the 2GB, 4GB or 16GB storage. We had the 4GB model. The magnets would let you attach the octopus to metallic surface or ‘ideally’ to an opposite coloured octopus so that they can kiss.

When we took all that information in our immediate reaction was “What? Why?” Or, at least, it was for everyone except for Joe, who instead quickly grasped on to the fact that he could use the magnet to attach the mouth of a miniature rubber octopus to his trouser zip. The collective response to that was, well, obvious.

Honestly, we’re still baffled about the design of the octopuses T806s, why they kiss and how A-Data won a Red Dot Design award for them. That last item is a special concern giving that they aren’t even all that good for carrying data around on (which is one of the main purposes of USB drives).


They weigh 33g each, are bulky and the rubber means they get all sticky and clammy in your pocket, so it’s not exactly something you want to keep on your keyring unless...well, unless you’re the type of person who keeps this sort of thing on their keyring. Paris Hilton springs to mind, but then she usually does.

Functionally though, the T806 Kissing Octopus Drives are pretty standard though. They work in both USB 2.0 and 1.1 and around the same speeds as most other USB drives, nothing special. We transferred a 314MB zip file containing all sorts of files back and forth a few times to work out an average transfer speed – writing to the drive took one minute, three seconds, reading from the drive just a matter of seconds.

The other good news is that the rubberised casing makes them pretty damage and water resistant, with both drives surviving being chucked down a flight of stairs and dunked in a glass of water for a minute or two.

Verdict: It’s hard to take the T806 Kissing Octopus Drives seriously and that’s because they are ludicrous and reliant on novelty. If you like that novelty and think the T806 is pretty funky then we suppose you’ll be satisfied. Otherwise, there are more conveniently sized USB drives out there – though they probably won’t magnetise to your crotch.