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Andrew S.

Andrew S.

Joined on 09/26/09

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 2
Most Critical Review

Quit after two years gentle use

Kingston FCR-HS3 USB 3.0 15-in-1 Media Reader
Kingston FCR-HS3 USB 3.0 15-in-1 Media Reader

Pros: Worked for two years Looks Good Good activity light (bright, but I want to know what it's doing to avoid data corruption, so it's good)

Cons: Broke after two years of moderate careful use small micro usb 3.0 plug in unit micro usb 3.0 plug broke internally, failing the device sd card slot is a little picky on insertion

Overall Review: I would have given it a five-star had it not broken after two years of moderate use. It sits on my desk 90% of the time, and shouldn't just break. I blame not enough internal bracing on the USB port for the failure. I'm a professional, so I've packed it safely into a camera bag next to a delicate hard drive for travel, but most of it's life the reader was safely on my desk, seldom even unplugged. I wasn't plugging and unplugging it every two days or anything, it just sat there and got used. After two years of careful use (I take care of my stuff especially if something so small costs $30 to replace) the micro usb 3.0 port in the back of this drive developed a poor connection internally. with pressure, the USB reader works fine, and as soon as I let go of light upward pressure on the plug, the circuit inside opens, probably a bad solder joint, and it disconnects. I feel they should have used a more durable port, and one that's not so small and picky to plug into. a full size usb or even the larger usb port could have fit, but instead we get this cheap cellphone-style plug that's worse to use than a standard micro usb because it's wider to accommodate USB 3.0. Most card readers use that connection, but it didn't work on this reader. if the next one breaks I will open it up and dissect it, perhaps hardwire it. I'll have to ship mine back and thankfully it's replaceable under warranty, but the hassle and the shipping charge is annoying and ALMOST not even worth it. I expected a professional quality unit for $30. Now I'll have a backup once the new one arrives, but I don't want to trust it as my only reader, which goes for anything in my working environment, but failures reduce trust further. Also, the CF slot is pretty decent but the SD slot is shared with another card that makes insertion annoying, it likes to feed in wrong. I'll probably get the Lexar reader next, which has two proprietary SD and CD slots. Sadly it also has the usb 3.0 micro slot...hopefully better seated, however. Otherwise it worked fantastic for almost two years! I wouldn't bother sending it in for a new one due to shipping cost, but in my circumstance it will serve as a good backup while I use a Lexar reader.

11/17/2013

Fat and Slow

SanDisk 32GB Cruzer Glide CZ60 USB 2.0 Flash Drive (SDCZ60-032G-B35)
SanDisk 32GB Cruzer Glide CZ60 USB 2.0 Flash Drive (SDCZ60-032G-B35)

Pros: Good space, and had a cheap price at 17.99 at staples during a sale this week. You can hide the USB interface to protect it when traveling with the slider.

Cons: Slow. I bought a TDK Trans-it 16gb drive years ago online and while that drive is half the capacity, this Sandisk and a Sandisk Cruzer Facet are four times slower at MB/s write speeds, making a 4-5gb photo transfer much slower than I care to save a few dollars for. Going back to Staples today to return them so I can buy more TDK drives. Fat. Sticks up a good half inch further than my TDK because of it's slider feature. the chip is nowhere near that long but it sure looks it when it's on my PC.

Overall Review: Try 18 or 19MB/s for my TDK and a measly 4.3MB/s for this Sandisk, and the other small ones I tried. Bleh. Read Speeds are on par with my TDK, if you've got 32gb of files you only want to write once (or can wait forever to write many times) go for it. If you want to read AND write to this thing, get up and brew a few cups of coffee or cook lunch, you'll have the time.