Review on FBA_ISDA504ASV Aluminum MicroSD Adapter MacBook by Angeline Darpino

I rarely write reviews but I was impressed by this product. I had never heard of BaseQi so I was a bit skeptical about its performance and reliability. I bought this on Saturday and bought it on Monday along with a Samsung EVO+ Samsung 256GB EVO Plus Class 10 UHS-I microSDXC U3 card with adapter (MB-MC256GA/EU) Read: up to 100MB/s, Write: up to 90MB/s! to make it possible. I installed Samsung in BaseQi and then plugged it into my MacBook. It wasn't on the desktop - I ran Disk Utilities and it wasn't there either. However, I then rebooted and was able to see it in Disk Utilities. Since Samsung EVO+ cards are usually formatted for Windows users (like most micro SD cards), I immediately erased them using Disk Utilities in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. Please note that this is an important step if you want to get the best speed out of your MacBook Pro. Don't skip this step! (See first screenshot attached). I also renamed it to a short name that I easily recognize (256G card). It then immediately appeared on my desktop, but this option is enabled in my Finder Preferences -> General. See Screenshot #2. (I recommend that you show the "CD, DVD, and iPod" option in the "Show these items on the desktop" section of the "General" pane of Finder Preferences -- at least until you get used to this Map - without this checkbox you will not see the map on your desktop). Interestingly, if you want to see it in the device list in the sidebar of every Finder window, you need to select "External Devices" in the Finder Preferences sidebar. I don't know what "CD, DVD, and iPod" should be right in the "General" section and "Edxternal Drives" in the sidebar section (see screenshot #3 below), but note that the options in Finder are DIFFERENT. Settings I then tried copying the 2GB file from my internal 1TB SSD to the new card - it was surprisingly quick. I tried another file and measured the speed. It transfers at 85MB/s (the Samsung card is rated at 90MB/s). I then copied a few files onto the card with no problem. Finally, I tried copying the 1GB file from the card back to my internal SSD and it was amazingly fast - I overclocked it to 95MB/s. I know this is a measurement of the Samsung card and not the BaseQi adapter, but my point is that the BasQi adapter did not limit or suppress the speed in any way. I was very impressed. I've also tried closing and reopening my laptop multiple times, but the card stayed on the desktop. I also used the sleep menu and then woke it up again. No issues with auto remounting as other people have reported here in other reviews. Apple may have fixed this issue in the latest version of Finder. I am using Mac OS Sierra (10.12.6). I know I've only been using it for 24 hours but no problems so far. I will update this review if I ever find any issues that make me less than 100% satisfied. I've been struggling with a full 1TB SSD on my MacBook for over a year - it gets very hot, and I know that having less than 1% free space in the same spot has caused this SSD horrible wear and tear and shortened its life expectancy. Using this now has freed up over a hundred GB of space on my SSD, which should greatly increase its lifespan. I know I could use an external drive to upload files, but I've already done so with several terabytes of data, and I still need at least 1TB of data when I'm away from my desk. Highly recommended!