nGear External Card Reader And USB hub

Before my trip to Vernon I was in need of reading the data off of the CompactFlash cards I have that I use with the Canon EOS 350D since transferring the photos from the camera to the computer was painfully slow with the supplied USB cable. I scoured the internet for a decent CompactFlash card reader and I managed to find one that was well priced and offered a few more features that could come in handy: The nGear All-In-One Card Reader & USB hub.

Who is nGear?

Well it took a little bit but I was able to confirm that nGear is the OEM brand for the popular Vancouver based computer dealer NCIX.com or as some people know them as Netlink Computers. Netlink has been around for a while and they currently have stores in Richmond, Vancouver, Burnaby and now Langley British Columbia. There is not a lot of information on Netlink’s website about nGear but mainly just people on their forums asking who nGear is and where they are based. nGear is actually situated next door to the Richmond location so it is pretty convenient when that store’s location runs out of nGear product.

Contents:

Inside the packaging, which is a pain to open and you need the use of a knife or scissors, you will find the external card reader itself, a USB cable and the AC power adapter. Though the second time I had to pick up one of these readers an unopened package left me without the USB cable. Luckily I have a spare!

It’s Go Time:

Now normally there isn’t anything mysterious about a memory card reader, internal or external but the first one that I purchased would not read compact-flash cards! That is the whole reason why I needed a reader, so that I could read the CompactFlash cards! Oh well a trip out to the Burnaby location the following day allowed me to exchange it for a new one. Again this new one, in a sealed package did not have the USB cable like the previous one did.

Design:

The nGear All-In-One Card Reader & USB hub is fairly small and weighs next to nothing, which makes it ideal for taking with you on the road. I unfortunately do not have access to a digital camera to show a side by side comparison of size but it is almost the same size as my Motorola Razr when it is closed.

The memory card slots that this reader supports are: Compact Flash (Type1 & Type2), Memory Stick, Secure Digital, XD, and Smart Media.

On one end are the 3 USB 2.0 ports and opposite from the USB ports are the USB output and DC jack for power.

When I got home from exchanging my nGear card reader I plugged it in and it worked like a charm, I was able to read the compact-flash cards I had and write back to them as well. Since reading and writing to the cards works fine off the power that the USB ports on a computer provide there was no need to use the supplied AC Adapter, which is for when you start using the USB hub and need to power other devices with more than the computer can dish out.

Performance:

Now unfortunately I don’t have much to test with and I do not have any Hi-Speed CompactFlash cards or any other type of memory but running HD Tach I was able to get a steady speed of 2.9MBps which to me isn’t very fast but it is slightly faster than the 12Mbps that I would achieve with a USB 1.1 device. Perhaps someone out there can explain to me why I would only be able to get 2.9MBps out of this USB 2.0 device though I think it has to do something with the Transcend 512MB Compact Flash card I have.

The USB hub portion of the nGear All-In-One Card Reader is a bonus for me. It offers 3 USB 2.0 ports and a separate AC power supply so that any device you plug in will be able to have enough power to operate properly. Even though my desktop computer has 6 USB ports, another 3 is always welcomed and especially when the laptop I have used only has 2 ports, an additional 3 is a great asset when you’re on the road and need to plug in various devices.

Conclusion:

For the price I paid for this nGear All-In-One Card Reader & USB hub (under $10 CDN) I believe it was a great catch and I really wish I bought more of them at the time because they are now $19 CDN though still for that price it really isn’t that bad of a deal since the other card readers I have seen are almost twice as much and none of them offered a USB hub.

I personally like how small and compact this external nGear card reader is, it fits easily in a pocket of a Laptop case and does not have a large footprint if you need to store it on a desktop.

The only down side that I have with this product is that the first one I purchased did not work with CompactFlash cards and kept giving me an Input/Output error.

Overall Score: 9 out of 10