Review on Satechi Type-C Aluminum UHS-II Micro/SD Card Reader Adapter - Compatible with MacBook Air 2020/2018, iPad Pro 2020/2018, MacBook Pro 2019/2018 (Space Gray) by Reginald Truitt

Bought after seeing the comparable 300MB/s speed of Sony cards with their MacBook Pro was slower than others. My previous card reader was the Sandisk UHS-II USB-C version. The speed difference between Satechi and Sandisk in my case was only 13 MB/s writing and 19 MB/s reading, but Satechi's sleek design, convenience of dual card slots, and reliability made it more worthwhile (there were issues where Sandisk sometimes only achieved UHS-I even though it was a UHS-II card). The SD card is inserted deeper into the Satechi and has a satisfying click/eject mechanism, similar to that found on many cameras. The card in the Sandisk reader simply slides in and sticks out just far enough to be pulled out. I don't think this is really a problem with Sandisk, it's just that small features/luxuries like this reflect the effort and attention to detail Satechi put into their card reader. The Satechi reader is about the same width, slightly longer due to the square shape and 3/4 as thick as the SanDisk. Despite the same diameter, the Satechi cable is twice as long and more flexible. The Sandisk seems to use a stiffer rubber, which might indicate its durability, but its stiffness makes it difficult, if not impossible, to position yourself freely. Satechi's soft-touch rubber is similar to cables designed by Apple, but thicker. Such design details go well with Apple-designed hardware; I bought a white wire cable for my silver MBP. The blue LED is unobtrusive, but does not blink based on card activity. The microSD and SD slots can be read and written at the same time. The read speed of Satechi's UHS-I reader is 91.5MB/s, which is 3MB/s faster. than the fastest UHS-I reader I've had before (anchor USB-C reader), but the write speed is exactly the same (81.2MB/s). Regardless of whether a UHS-II card is used or not, the speed understandably drops to 50 MB/s writing and 65 MB/s reading when a different card slot is used at the same time. even if the other card used is only UHS-I. I couldn't test two UHS-II cards because I don't have a UHS-II microSD card. Both slots are recognized by the iPad Pro, but cannot be used at the same time. If two cards are already in the reader before connecting to the iPad, the iPad will give priority to the microSD card. Otherwise, the card that was inserted first has priority. -- Importing 66 uncompressed 24MP RAW (DNG) files to the iPad took 20 seconds with a 300MB/s Sony UHS-II card and about 1 minute with the fastest 100MB UHS-I -microSD cards/s (Samsung and Sandisk, the latter is a V30 card). So this equates to a nearly three times faster UHS-II read interface. I assume there are faster card readers out there as I wasn't able to hit the max Sony card speeds that others did, but the 15MB/s difference is negligible and I'm pretty sure other readers use USB -A 3.1 used. So I'm wondering if this USB-C reader is 3.0 instead of 3.1 or if the speed difference is just the difference between Mac and PC. However, no USB-C SD card reader is faster than Satechi. There's another that uses the much faster Thunderbolt interface, only to pointlessly hit the same base 95MB/s read speed (since the product description says it's a UHS-I reader). I realized long ago that unless the reader specifically says it's UHS-II or UHS-III, it's UHS-I. They're trying to boost sales by using faster interfaces, but that's pointless because regardless of the interface (2.0, 3.0, 3.1, or Thunderbolt) it's based on the reality of 95MB/s UHS-I (theoretical limit of 104MB/ s) will be limited ). Ultimately, if you care about aesthetics and need content too, look no further than Satechi. Sandisk and my review there. I recommend both based on Sandisk's availability.