Product review: UtechSmart USB 3.0 Superspeed Multi-in-1 4-Slots Memory Card Reader

UtechSmart card reader is card reader that plugs into your USB port. It is capable of USB 3.0 speeds and also is backwards compatible to USB 2.0/1.1. It has a nice feature that indicates at what speed you are transmitting data: red indicator shows your transfer is at USB 2.0 speed and green indicator shows that you are transferring data at USB 3.0 speed. USB 2.0 speed is 480 Mbit/s. USB 3.0 is 10 times faster than USB 2.0 4.8 Gbps.

This card reader works with following formats:
SDXC (up to 2TB), SDHC, SD, CF, High-Speed CF(UDMA), MS, M2, Micro SDXC, Micro SDHC, Micro SD cards.

The unit itself is fairly small 2.25?" x 2.25" x 0.375". It does not require an external power source, it gets the power it needs from the USB connection. The card reader has a built-in USB cable which is 4" long. The unit weighs 1.4 oz.

I tested the card reader on Windows 7 and Linux. Note that it is documented to work with Windows and Mac, but I have successfully tested it under Linux as well.

I tested with Class 10 SD card and 133X CF card.

Each operating system I tested saw the cards plugged into the card reader without any problems.

To evaluate similar devices I tested each port by copying the same large set of mp3 files totalling 638916 Megabytes. I measured CPU time and clock time. My goal is to test that each port works, and to compare the performance relative to other card readers I have tested. Since I use the same set of files I can compare different devices in "apples to apples" comparison.

I ran each test three times to make sure they were consistent.

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TEST #1 SD card
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1.242s (cpu) 1:40.82 (clock time)

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TEST #2 micro CF card
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1.339s (cpu) 0:42.69 (clock time)

This card performed better than other card readers I have tested.

Hoo Too card reader (ASIN B00CDY0DSA):
CF card:___________1.234s (cpu) 1:27.81 (clock time)
SD card:___________1.241s (cpu) 1:46.49 (clock time)
UtechSmart USB 3.0 Card Reader (ASIN B00CBTQW6E)
SD card:___________1.551s (cpu) 1:48.54 (clock time)

I received this card reader for testing and review from the manufacturer. The card reader performed well in my tests. The card is small, fast, and a short USB cable allows it to fit well even into a laptop where the USB slots are tightly packed. I find it especially handy to use with my laptop which does not have a built-in card reader.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★★