I also wonder if the HDMI port in the stock photo is still easily accessible with this thing plugged in. I hate plug in devices that block other inputs/ports.

Frankly, this is more a visual gimmick rather than useful form factor. And probably that's why sandisk went with this design of pill/small candy - because how long you can do boring 4cm-7cm oblong thumb drives?

This thing is too small to be handled or placed with confidence you won't drop it or knock if off the table.

That's a more general problem with USB.

The problem I have with USB on windows is how windows insists on turning off/crashing drivers for anything attached to USB for long periods of time.

It’s gotten to the point I just turn off my machine (instead of power saving) so that things actually work when I turn it on.

If you use Linux (dual boot for instance) you can disable it with this boot arg for the kernel in Grub (and LILO too, you Slackware users, or Refind/Syslinux). Just append:

     usb.autosuspend=-1 usbcore.autosuspend=-1

to the

     linux quiet=1 foo bar blah blah... line in your /etc/default/grub, /etc/lilo.conf or whatever bootloader you use. Then, run update-grub or similar.

It will draw more power on laptops but not much.