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Brando 23- in- 1 Card Reader and USB Hub Combo


Date
: 09/24/06 – 04:47:40 AM

Author
:

Category
: Input Devices

Page 1 : Introduction

Over the last few years, card readers have become increasingly popular and with reason too! For those who own multiple devices which use different types of memory cards, a card reader is a must-have. Today we are going to take a look at a product that is a combination of a card reader and a USB hub because, let's face it, one can never have too many USB ports.

This card reader with a built in USB hub is advertised as 23- in -1 however, this is not exactly the case. CF (Compact Flash), CF II (Compact Flash II) and CF II ultra (Compact Flash II Ultra) are all various forms of Compact Flash and only differ in performance. The same applies with MS (Memory Stick) MS Duo (Memory Stick Duo), MS Pro (Memory Stick Pro), MS Pro Duo (Memory Stick Pro Duo) and so on, again all forms of a Memory Stick. The Brando 23- in- 1 card reader, like
all
multi-format readers is in fact no more than a 6 in 1 card reader (CF, MD, SD, MMC, SM, and MS) and with the addition of an adaptor SD mini and TF, an 8 in 1 card reader.

Page 2 : Package and Contents

The Brando 23- in- 1 Card Reader and USB hub ships within a clear circular clamshell style package allowing both easy viewing of the product and product information.

On the rear printed in green is a list of specifications and features along with operating system compatibility information.

Peeling apart the two sides of the clamshell package frees the content. Included is the card reader, drivers, and a short USB cable.

The card reader is a small dust-grey colored rectangular shaped device. Hidden away at the back is a power plug and a five pin mini USB connector allowing the device to be connected to the computer.

On the opposite end are three USB connnectors.

Finally, off to the side are the slots for the card reader. Each slot is labeled to prevent confusion.

Two translucent plastic pieces are located on the top of the device, one indicates power and the other activity.

Overall, the design is not a bad looking piece, especially with the dark blue accenting pieces on either end of the device. However, these pieces happen to be stickers!

Removing the stickers on both sides allow the device to be disassembled. Upon further inspection, the USB HUB piece along with the translucent LED covers can be removed just as easily.

All of at Overclockers Online love to take things apart when given the chance and opening up the Brando 23- in- 1 Card Reader and USB Hub is no exception. Peeling the stickers off and sliding the unit apart reveals the insides of the device.

The PCB within along with the components are clearly laid out and attached, which is a good sign in comparison to the external enclosure.

Before we head into the core of the review, we will first take a look at specifications and features.

Page 3 : Specifications

Here is what Brando USB has to say about their card reader:

Features:

23-in-1 CARD READER/WRITER
Built-in USB 2.0 3-port HUB
LED indicators show status of power-on and memory card slots while operating
USB 2.0 transfer rate up to 480 Mbps, backward USB 1.1 transfer rate up to 12Mbps
Read high speed over 4.3 Mbps, write high speed over 1.3 Mbps
Icon beside the card slots, easy to distinguish
Directly transfer files between different memory cards simultaneously
USB self powered
Plug and play
Hot swapping support
Pocket size, compact, lightweight
Lower power consumption
Support 98Se/Me/2000/ XP & Mac OS V9.2 or higher
Dimension: 10.4×6.5×1.6cm
Weight: 68g

Supported Memory Card:

CF I (Compact Flash I)
CF II (Compact Flash II)
CF II Ultra (Compact Flash II Ultra)
MD (Micro Drive)
MMC (Multi Media)
MMC II (Multi Media II)
MMC HS (Multi Media HS)
MMC RS (Multi Media RS)
MS (Memory Stick)
MS Duo (Memory Stick Duo)
MS Pro (Memory Stick Pro)
MS Pro Duo (Memory Stick Pro Duo)
MS MG (Memory Stick Magic Gate)
MS MG Duo (Memory Stick Magic Gate Duo)
MS MG Pro (Memory Stick Magic Gate Pro)
MS MG Pro Duo (Memory Stick Magic Gate Pro Duo)
SD (Secure Digital)
*SD Mini (Secure Digital Mini)
SD SDC (Secure Digital SDC)
SD Ultra (Secure Digital Ultra)
SM (Smart Media)
*TF (T Flash)
XD (Xtreme Digital)
* CARD ADAPTER required

Now, we have already discussed the inaccuracy of labelling the device as a 23- in- 1 card reader in the introduction, essentially the Brando 23- in- 1 is a 6/8- in- 1, depending on the adaptors for SD mini and TF. Unfortunately the adaptors for SD mini and TF are not included and are not listed on Brando's site.

Page 4 : Installation

Installing the Brando 23- in- 1 Card Reader and USB Hub should be a quick and painless procedure, much like any other USB device. Devices such as these are meant for convenience and of course work best when placed in a location that is easy to reach.

Once done, attach the USB cord and insert the driver disk. After the installer runs, the user will be prompted to attach the USB cable to the unit.

Once installed, check for the new devices located in My Computer.

Next up, let's take a look at how this device performs!

Page 5 : Testing

There is no question that using a USB hub type device will hinder performance, but they do provide an excellent level of convenience so the offset is reasonable. In this section, we will only be taking a brief look at performance with the aid of benchmarking programs such as HD Tach RW, HD Tune and Disk Bench. The rest will be based on usability and convenience which is a major factor for such devices. Like always, we will start off with system specifications:

The first benchmark we will look at is HD Tach RW.

Both cards performed worse than their rated speeds, the Buffalo 4 GB's performance on the other hand remained constant with our previous tests with it's attached directly to the motherboard. However and not surprisingly, random access time increased dramatically.

Next up, we will take a look at HD Tune, another synthetic benchmark.

These results are again fairly consistent with HD Tach RW. To finish off our senthetic tests, we will take a loot at ATTO Disk Benchmark.

Again, these results are consistent with the above benchmarks. Synthetic benchmarks are great for quick and easy testing, but what really matters is how the drive performs in a real world environment! To test this, we will be using DiskBench which simply copies or reads a file from a selected location and records the amount of time it takes.

First, we will take a look at DiskBench's copy/ write benchmark:

Both the CF and SD card remained consistent with the synthetic benchmark tests, but the Buffalo USB drive performed slightly worse.

Finally, the our read results from DiskBench. Like our copy tests, the Buffalo USB drive performed worse. Surprisingly though, the ATP SD card actually scored higher than in our synthetic benchmarks! 6.427 MB/s is close to the rated 9MB/s of a 60X card where 1X is 150KB/s. Though the SD Card performed better, the Sandisk Extreme CF card lagged behind by a few decimal numbers.

Page 6 : Practicality and Conclusion

Now that we have thoroughly tested this device, the question is: is this device practical? Nowadays a new product does not necessarily mean it is any better than the previous or others already on the market for that matter, but instead new usually means more features. Manufacturers love to cram more and more features into a device until the point where features is the main focus and not how the device performs. This seems to be the case with the Brando 23- in- 1 (or 6/8 in 1) Card Reader and USB Hub. Realistically, how many users will actually need such a wide variety of cards? There comes a point where there is too much.

Instead of trying to cram support for all types of cards it would be nice to see some more specialized card readers; a CF/ SD card reader would be enough for most people. Those who would actually need a card reader which supports such a wide variety of memory cards such as printing labs would probably be looking for something slightly faster especially because large capacity memory cards are becoming more and more widespread.

The bottom line is, I would advise in defining what
you
need. If a multi-format reader is required, than the Brando 23-in-1 can be an option. If you only need to support one or two media formats, consider looking elsewhere. The list of problems is extensive: poor structural designs, poor performance, questionable price, and so on. The only feature I enjoyed using was the USB hub, but that itself is not enough to offset the short comings.

Advantages

Fast USB hub
Wide range of support for memory cards

Disadvantages

Price
Poor structural build quality
Slow mult-media transfer speeds

Overclockers Online would like to thank Brando for providing the review sample.