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Test Drive: EZQuest Card Reader Share This on LinkedIn   Tweet This   Forward This

8 November 2021

Nothing takes the shine off a new computer than realizing its ports aren't compatible with your old peripherals. If you don't have peripherals with an oval USB-C plugs these days, you won't be able to do something as simple as mount an external drive or transfer photos from your memory cards.

EZQuest 5-in-1 Card Reader. In the box.

That puts you in the market for a USB-C hub or reader of some kind that does what your old USB-A devices did with their rectangular plugs on your old computer.

Sadly, you won't find the equivalent of a Belkin 4-port USB hub for $20. You're more likely to find a dizzying selection of options that all run nearly $300.

But recently we have been testing a $60 card reader from EZQuest that makes us very confident that when that M1 Pro arrives some day, we'll be able to completely forget our collection of Firewire Compact Flash and USB SD card readers.

Ports. Two CompactFlash ports on one side with Micro SD, SD and Memory Stick ports on the other.

It's five ports handle everything from Memory Sticks to CompactFlash, including SD and Micro SD cards. Transfers are simultaneously on all ports. A long cable makes it convenient to access. It's designed to dissipate heat and minimize interference and it's plug-and-play with no driver needed.

"Ports. The SD, Memory Stick and Micro SD ports.

What's not to like?

HIGHLIGHTS

Highlights of the EZQuest 5-in-1 Card Reader include:

  • CFast 2.0, UHS-II SD and UHS-II Micro SD ports
  • Up to 525-MB/s transfer rate over CFast 2.0
  • Up to 250-MB/s transfer rate over UHS-II SD and Micro SD
  • CompactFlash and Memory Stick ports
  • Extended 9-inch cable
  • Separate port locations
  • Simultaneous read and write on all five ports
  • LED indicator for each reader lights when in use
  • Anodized aluminum sleeve maximizea heat dissipation, minimizea EM interference
  • Plug and Play, no driver needed
  • Thunderbolt 3 and 4 compatible

COMPATIBILITY

There is a long list of products the company has tested the card reader on. The compatible products includes:

  • All Apple products with USB-C ports
  • Thunderbolt 3 ready computers
  • USB-C ready computers/devices
  • Smartphones and tablets with OTG support
  • Google Chromebook Pixel
  • Dell XPS 13/15
  • Lenovo Yoga 5 Pro
  • Samsung Galaxy S8, S9, S8 & S9 Plus
  • Nexus 5x, 6P
  • Microsoft Lumia 950/950 XL
  • LG G5 Phone
  • HTC Ultra, U Ultra, U11, Bolt

Operating system compatibility includes:

  • Mac OS Version 10.13.6 and above
  • Windows 10 and Windows 8.1
  • Chrome OS 46.0.2490.82 and above
  • Android 7.0 and above

SPECIFICATIONS

Specifications for the EZQuest reader include:

EZQUEST 5-in-1 CARD READER SPECIFICATIONS
Identification Part Number: X40021
UPC Code: 694307400214
Connector USC-C (male)
Cable Length 8.66 inches
Readers CFast: CFast 2.0/SATA III at 6 Gb/s
CompactFlash: Type I UDMA 7 at 167 MB/s
SDXC: UHS-II at 312 MB
Micro SDXC: UHS-II at 312 MB/s
Memory Stick Pro
Dimensions 1.41 x 5.82 x 0.43 inches
Finish Space Gray aluminum
LED indicators
Power Thunderbolt/USB bus power
Warranty One Year

TEST DRIVE

Our first challenge was to load the ports with cards. We grabbed a Micro SD card, an SD card and a CompactFlash can and studiously tried to insert them.

But you know us. If there's a way to screw it up, we'll find it. And if there isn't, we'll invent it.

So naturally, with the unit's faceplate facing up, we tried to insert the cards right-side up. No sale.

If we had bothered to look at each port first, we would have seen discrete triangles indicating which way is up. And, as it turns out, you mostly insert cards upside down with the faceplate up.

Once we grasped the concept, all we had to do was find a computer with a USB-C port.

But one nagging little question stuck in our craw. The specs say it's Thunderbolt 3 compatible. And our new if imaginary iMac Pro is Thunderbolt 4. Would it work in the new 16-inch MacBook Pro?

At Work. LEDs on with three cards mounted on the Desktop.

We had to find out, so we hustled down to the Apple Store dressed to look like one of those rich eccentrics like Woz and found an idle 16-inch MacBook Pro with 16-GB RAM and a 1-TB SSD.

An Apple employee came over and graciously asked us to put on one of their masks, which he handed to us. We were wearing a face covering but apparently only a paper mask meets requirements. So you could say we got something for free at the Apple Store. No small thing.

We took a look at the machine's specs before we whipped the card reader out a pocket of our plaid vest. It was a perfect matching space gray.

It was already loaded with three cards so we just plugged it into the USB-C port on the left side of the MacBook Pro. Almost instantly our three cards mounted on the Monterey 12.01 desktop.

We looked at the reader and, just as the specs promised, the ports that had cards were lit with little green LEDs.

We did some file transfers between the cards, avoiding the MacBook Pro. They were lightning fast. So, yes, Thunderbolt 4 works just fine. And the reader barely got warm enough to take the chill off our hands.

No, we're not going to miss our USB-A peripherals.

There's another twist to this plot and it's the iPad. With this reader attached to your iPad, you can import Raw files into Photoshop on the iPad directly from a card.

CONSIDERATIONS

It might seem extravagant to devote a USB-C port to a card reader. But if you have several cameras, you no doubt have several card formats. And that's especially true if you've been at it a while.

The EZQuest 5-in-1 Card Reader covers the territory pretty well. We tried some old cards in it and it handled them easily.

But because it's plug-and-play, it isn't as onerous as it used to be to just unplug the thing when you don't need it and plug it in when you do. We didn't time it, but we suspect plugging this reader into that Mac was a lot faster than loading a floppy disk ever was. The system just didn't hiccup.

Of course, you could always attach the reader to a USB-C hub that includes your external drive with your photo archives.

EZQuest, which has been unusually forthcoming as well as responsive to pre-sale questions at B&H, recommends macOS 10.15.6 Catalina or above and iOS 13 on the iPad Pro because the reader uses Power Delivery Version 3.0 to swiftly move things around.

PRICE, AVAILABILITY

The EZQuest 5-in-1 CFast 2.0 Reader is available now for $59.99 from B&H.

CONCLUSION

In a compact, well-design package that minimizes electrical interference and dissipates heat, the EZQuest card reader provides five ports for a wide variety of card formats, all of which are simultaneously active. It's long cord makes it easy to access even if your host port is not. And the price, simply, is affordable.

We're giving it all four corners for doing a simple job well. A rare enough thing these days.


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