Despite how important memory cards have become to daily life a lot of computer still don’t have card readers, or at least a sufficiently robust one. If you are lucky your notebook will come with a 3-in-1 reader that will be able to handle a SD card, but that is about all we tend to see. For many people this is not that big of a deal, because SD has emerged as the most popular type of memory card, but many of use still use other types, like CF, and are picking up smaller cards to use on phones and portable devices, like microSD.
Running down the list, the Media Reader can handle CF (type I an II), MicroDrive, SD, SDHC, miniSD, miniSDHC, microSD, microSDHC, MMC, RS-MMC, MMCmobile, MMCmicro, and five flavors of MemoryStick. The main card style that people may find missing is xD. The Media Reader is an external device that uses USB to connect to any computer.
The design of the Media Reader is simple and effective. It is about 3.5″ x 2.5″ x 0.75″ and weighs very little (71g). It is sturdy enough to throw in a bag and move around with you and the USB cord tucks inside the body so it should not snag on anything. The reader itself slides within the body of the device so that the four card slots can be exposed or hidden away, protecting both the slots and, more importantly, cards you are holding. The USB connector is on a short cord, about an inch long but an extension is included in case you want to connect the reader to a somewhat inaccessible port.
From a speed standpoint the device is capped at 480Mbps due to it being a USB 2.0 device. During testing speeds were sufficient so that even extended transfers were not too painful. The Media Reader is more designed for versatility and travel than speed though.
Overall, Kingston’s Media Reader gets the job done. My only complaint would be that the sliding mechanism is a bit tough to move from time to time so you have to push the reader a harder than you would normally want to. Past that it works well, and since it costs under $20 there is not really much to complain about. The lack of xD support will be an issue with some people, but it has all the other major media cards covered.