USB microSD Reader + Card product reviews

I don't have a *huge* lot of use for microSD cards, but when it comes to keeping data safe, there aren't much better ways than to download it to one of these tiny, thumbnail-sized storage cards and hide it somewhere a burglar would never look. Great way to ensure copies of all your important documents, data and insurance files are kept secure in case of disaster. You can hide one of these almost anywhere in the house... trust me, I have tried it.

However, the biggest (ironic) problem I have is that neither my PC nor laptop carry microSD ports, and I have no adaptors... until now.

This little card, available in 1 or 2 gig versions, comes with a nifty little, and I *mean* little, adaptor that slaps into any available ever-popular USB port and bingo, you have another removable storage drive to play with. With a total size of only 33mm long, by 15mm wide, and only 7mm thick, this little adaptor is possibly the dinkiest USB drive I have come across in years. The case is a rigid plastic shell, and will spit out the actual adaptor on the end of a string. Yup, the *actual* device is even smaller! 28mm x 12mm x 4mm! Into the back of this you slip your mSD card and off you go.

As for speed, well, some interesting results there. "Ideal benchmarks" were set at 13mb/s read and 3.5mb/s write. As usual, standard testing, but this time a 600meg CD image, and only 900megs of assorted data files. Time-tests tend to be pointless if you even *risk* hitting a "Disk Full" alert. Read speed... a blazing 12.1 meg per sec... awesome stuff... and write speeds... a staggeringly 3.45 meg per sec was the very *best* with an average of around 3.1 mb/s. Pretty impressive, even if writing is about a quarter of read speed.

Overall, perfect for use in your phones, certain media players (such as many of the Sansa range), some new digital cameras and even some brands of GPS navigator. These tiny storage cards are also great for the home user who wants to save data and keep it safe and discrete. In fact, with the adaptor so tiny, I just leave the card in there and use it as a miniscule pendrive. It is tidy, impossible to lose in day-to-day usage, and the adaptor is even compatible with the higher-capacity SDHC cards, which are all over 4gb. When the adaptor is inside it's sleeve, you can't even lose the card! A real winner, but look out for the larger sized cards - a much better plan in this ever-expanding-data world.