Kingston Releases USB 3.0 Media Card Reader

With the USB 3.0 interface quickly gaining normalcy, we’re seeing storage devices being launched left, right and center that support the super-fast speeds that it provides. We’ve even taken a look at a few such solutions ourselves (and have more in the works). But among all these thumb drives and other external storage devices, where are all the media readers? A quick glance at Newegg shows a paltry sampling, and those that are there are from companies I’ve never heard of.

Given the lacking USB 3.0 card reader options on the market, Kingston apparently wanted to make sure that its initial offering was far from bland. It’s black, sleek, functional, and of course, fast. While few card readers can proudly be displayed on your desk, this one might be one of the very few that actually looks as cool as our gaming keyboards and mice.

The reader is simply called ‘Multi-Card Reader 3.0’, and it supports all CompactFlash, Secure Digital, microSD and Memory Stick models, and given the current crop of cards on the market, no single model will come close to exceeding the throughput that this reader is capable of.

CompactFlash currently offers the best performance on the market where camera cards are concerned, with 300x being the most common speed (45MB/s). There do exist faster offerings, such as 600x (90MB/s), but you’re really beginning to enter the realm of ‘ugh’ pricing at that point. Still, given that affordable CF cards can already surpass the USB 2.0 bus by at least 50%, a reader such as this isn’t a bad choice for those needing the best speeds possible. The difference between a USB 2.0 and 3.0 reader with a 300x CF card would show a considerable difference if copying over hundreds or even thousands of photos.

This reader should become available soon, with Kingston pricing it at $45.00 USD (I’d expect it to retail for a bit less when it actually hits retail).