This Boxing Day was awesome, I managed to pick up an 8GB Class 6 Sandisk MicroSDHC with the MobileMate MicroSD reader for $30 CAD, which is a steal (probably won’t be in a few months, but still!). First thing I did was pick up my favorite card reader, the one bundled with the AceKard 2 and started the transfer. It took about 15 minutes to transfer my 4GB of data into the cart. I thought that it was fairly acceptable, the AceKard MicroSD reader is the fastest in my arsenal. Then I realized, being the bored individual in Christmas break, how much faster can the MobileMate be?
Apparently, this card reader comes highly recommended. So I formatted my card, and transferred the same files, and what a difference! It took a mere 4 minutes to transfer the 4GB of data. That’s almost 4x faster!
Let’s see, over the years, I’ve collected and used a lot of MicroSD readers, from the world’s smallest MicroSD reader at DealExtreme.com to the really bulky metal ones bundled with the CycloDS Evolution. If you bought them alone, they’d cost the few dollars that the MobileMate costs. They are just so slow, and I’m considered one of the lucky ones because I haven’t really gotten corrupted data from the readers yet.
Honestly I never bothered getting myself a new card reader, I’ve seen these go on sale for a few dollars in the blowout bins where someone popped out the memory cards or even friends that chuck them into the corner because they use the MicroSD to SD adapter instead. Even worse is when you try to buy a Sandisk MicroSDHC, and it comes bundled, but to lower the price of shipping, you have the option of ditching the content, don’t do it! Let me say this now, the MobileMate MicroSD reader is a nifty reader that retails for $10, and it is far superior to those bundled with your flash carts, it is far superior to connecting your phones to USB or even buying the cheap Chinese card readers.
If you happen to see two Sandisk MicroSDHC cards go on sale, and one is bundled with the reader, go for it, even if it is more expensive! I can’t stress enough what a relief it was to be able to transfer files. As you can tell from my army of MicroSD readers, before I got the MobileMate, I didn’t care for the expensive readers. Usually it takes like a minute or two to transfer one of those larger DS games to my memory card, today, everything happened almost instantaneously. It really saves you a lot of time in the long run to get one of these, whether you believe it or not.
i was thinking of buying one of these lately as my cyclo ds reader has recently started corrupting my cards, thanks for the heads up
I have one of these guys: http://gizmodo.com/348764/80+in+1-card-reader-for-only-17
I can’t match those insane speeds you get even on my Class 6 mSD, but it can read pretty much everything out there and you can read/write to all of the slots at the same time.
Damn I sure want to buy this.
I too have the 80 in 1 card reader but it just corrupts my Micro SDHC.I guess I have to buy a new one.
I heard the read speed or access speed of the class 6 of some brands is not much better than a Kingston class 4. Is that true?
I one MicroSD reader and its in a realy bad state, lol.
I don’t want to order one online and in the electronic-markets they only sell those silly 10in1 Jumbo-readers x(
BTW. it sucks when the reader is that think, blocks out the USBs next to it…
Hmmm ZzzZilla, I’ve heard that too, but I haven’t actually gotten a Kingston Class 4 to test. Maybe if you wanna drop ship one to me 🙂
Hehehe. Got me one of them myself. Pretty sick I have to say.
Meh. I just take the SD, card, put in the MicroSD, and stick it into my laptop. No USB adapter. :/. Transfering fast, too.
My bundled cyclods reader has been working perfectly for about half a year now but if it ever fails I’m definitely gonna check out something like this.
My acekard 2 reader works way better than my 80 in 1 card reader.But I am intrested in the mobilemate.Trying to find a good bargain.
Good deal on the card, man. I’m waiting on my 8gig to arrive. It was a good $10 cheaper, but is only a class 2. I’ve read that the class only relates to the write speed, but I’m not sure. I’ll have to wait until it gets here =P
hm
ive been looking for a new microsd/microsd reader (my reader got stuck in my 360 and broke on its way out, i shouldve used a usb cord extender!)
i may just pick one of these up 😉
I thought class relates to read and write speed. I’m guessing you bought from DX? If you did, I want to know how the class 2 at DX fairs, some people claim that it is still decent.
I got the same card reader except mine is Red how comes yours is grey? I have the cyclo one aswell but its pretty crap.
I saw some red ones in the bin as well, I think they just have variations or maybe different batches.
That USB reader is gorgeous. I only have the CycloDS’ one. It’s not that bad, to be honest. The one that came with my M3 Simply is far beyond crap.
I wonder if it would make SDLC 4x faster as well.
I’m guessing you mean non SDHC (if the term SDLC [which I assume is SD low capacity] gets popular, remember it got coined right here at DSDatabase! 🙂 ). I think it definitely could. It isn’t increasing the speed, it is that most memory cards have extremely fast read and write speeds, but there is a limit to the speed on the crappy readers. So essentially with a crappy reader, you are capping the maximum speed. If you use a faster/better reader, you are simply increasing the limit, allowing the card to go faster. If you don’t see an improvement, you have a pretty crappy memory card. XD
I can’t exactly test out a SDHC reader but I got a standard microSD reader from Kingston (it kinda traps the card into it’s design). It cost me about £5 and it’s been about twice as fast as the CycloDS one. The only annoyance is that it gets stuck into the reader so getting it out is a hassle.
That reader you’ve featured does look proficient though so I might grab one once I find a need to get a high capacity SD card.
Hmm, usually microSD’s don’t come with readers. xD
Not if they’re SDHC. In that case you’ll probably need them so that’s why they’re bundled.
kangaroo micro sd reader is r0x
btw my entry into teh competition 🙂
-jp
Wow. I guess the type of reader that you’re using really makes a difference.
Btw, I’m in too 😛
I picked up one of these http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.18714 which looks very similar. Will test the speeds of my msds with it when it arrives. 🙂
Wow when you do test it, could you post something here, I really want to know how it stacks up, if it is the same as the original, I have to pick up a few
I tried DSOne, Acekard, DSTT and EDGE TF reader, my favorite is DSOne’s reader. Well build, works perfectly.
It sounds great considering I lost my cyclo ds reader. However it seems a bit large.