Okay Geek Farm
ELAGO (14-in-1) USB Card Reader Review
Jason Tsay
Nowadays, computers are usually chock full of ports, ranging from Thunderbolt ports to the most ubiquitous USB ports. However, many are still deprived of stranger standards, such as Sony’s Memory Stick Pro Duo. The Elago 14-in-1 USB Card Reader is here to solve that problem, in a nice looking package too.
Overview
Core features
- High speed USB 2.0 for superior data transfer (480mbps)
- No additional card adapters needed, built in USB cable
Our Impressions
Packaging on the USB Card Reader is extremely simple - a piece of rigid plastic wrapped around a chunk of foam, in which the card reader is embedded. No literature or anything is included.
The Reader itself is a black, glossy rectangular box, with a USB cable attached to the bottom. The cable itself isn’t very long but gets the job done and tucks neatly on the underside of the reader when not in use. A single blue indicator light glows when you plug the Card Reader into a computer. On one side, there are ports for Memory Stick, MS Pro, MS Duo, MS Pro Duo, SD, MMC, RS MMC, miniSD, and microSD; totaling up to three slots. The left side of the brick allows you to read M2 cards while the entire top side is dedicated to a CompactFlash/Micro Drive port. The only instance where we had trouble reading multiple cards was when we inserted both microSD card and an SD card at the same time. Whichever one is plugged in first will be recognized while the second is simply refuses to be detected.
Something to note is that when using Window’s Safely Remove Hardware feature, all of the cards show up under one device, since they are all technically on one USB port. At times, we were able to individually eject each memory card while sometimes they were grayed out and we had to eject the entire hub.
What didn’t we like? The stowaway USB cable is convenient but requires you to pry it out by digging a fingernail under the metal part of the connector. We also fear that the cable might snap after being repeatedly wrapped around the corner. The microSD slot is located directly below the SD slot, making it near impossible to extract without pulling out the larger card. As to be expected, the glossy black finish definitely looks great but does get covered with fingerprints and scuffs easily.
Overall
prc$14.99
We’d recommend this product to anyone who needs to read multiple memory cards on the go but not to those who simply need to read cards on a desktop computer. There are better, more suitable options for the latter group. That said, the 14-in-1 USB Card Reader does exactly what it’s meant to do and crams quite a bit of functionality into a very portable form factor.
Pro’s
- 14 ports
- Portable and compact
Con’s
- SD and microSD won’t read simultaneously
- easily scratched plastic
Where to buy
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