It can be pretty frustrating having to carry around a number of different memory cards just because each of your portable devices takes on a different format. Perhaps you have a portable media player with a microSD expansion slot, a PDA phone with a miniSD slot, and a digital camera with a standard SD slot. Why buy separate memory cards when you can get the best of all three worlds with the ATP SD Trio memory card collection?
It starts with a single microSD card, but it comes with adapters to transform the same chunk of flash memory into a miniSD or standard SD card. It even has an adapter that effectively makes the microSD card into a USB Flash drive. Sort of.
Three Cards in One
That’s the fundamental advantage to the ATP SD Trio over its competitors: it really is three cards in one. Typically, when you purchase a microSD card from a major manufacturer, it will come with an adapter that brings it up to the standard SD card size. The same can be said about most miniSD cards, but no other manufacturer — to my knowledge — has decided to toss all three sizes in one package.
In a nutshell, the microSD card fits into the miniSD-sized adapter, which in turn can be fitted into the full size SD adapter. Three memory card sizes, one actual memory card. By forcing you to place the microSD card inside the miniSD adapter before plunking it into the standard SD adapter, ATP saves itself the cost of one extra adapter: the microSD-to-SD.
I found this configuration to be very convenient to use. The build quality on the three primary components is quite good, but you have to be careful with the microSD card, because it is obviously quite delicate. And as if the miniSD and standard SD adapters weren’t enough, ATP has also included a USB microSD card reader as well. In this way, the trio is really a quartet: microSD, miniSD, SD, and USB flash drive.
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Performance
You knew there had to be a catch, right? While the concept behind the ATP SD Trio is a good one, the read and write speeds on the memory card are lacking relative to its direct competitors.
Yup, it’s pretty slow. The above HDTune test — with around a 5 MB/sec rate throughout — was performed with with full-sized SD card adapter and I suspect that the slower speed is due to some sort of bottleneck from having to use two adapters before inserting the card in my computer. Below is the test when used with the microSD USB card reader. The transfer rate increased to the 8 MB/sec range.
The speed usually won’t be a big issue on cell phones, because not all that much speed is needed to play back digital music files nor is Speedy Gonzalez needed to snap pictures with that measly 2.0 megapixel camera. Where you will start to suffer in performance is if you use the ATP SD Trio in your higher megapixel digital camera or when you want to access larger files on your smartphone.
The slower data transfer rates will also be quite annoying when you want to transfer information to and from your computer. This issue comes up both when you use a SD card reader and when you use the USB microSD card reader.
Speaking of the Card Reader
The idea is good. The included microSD card reader is a clear plastic, allowing you to see all the guts of its inner workings. This will surely appeal to the techies and tech-wannabes in the audience. The physical size of the USB flash reader is also quite small, measuring not much bigger than a standard Bluetooth dongle. It’s actually smaller than many USB flash drives.
To insert the microSD card, you lift up a flap at the end to reveal a pseudo-hidden slot. The card slides into this slot, you close the flap, and then you insert the USB end into an available port on your computer. Although this sounds simple, there are two glaring issues that must be addressed.
On the USB end, there is a small string that helps you prevent cap loss. It’s a good idea, but it’s very poorly implemented. It can be frustrating putting the cap back on, because you have to keep this string taut. If you don’t, it’ll get caught in the space between the reader and the cap, making for an incomplete seal or closure.
Secondly, inserting the microSD card is easy, but removing it is a big pain in the rear end. The card has a very small raised portion that’s supposed to catch your fingernail, allowing you to slowly slide the card out. Unfortunately, what ends up happening is that you’ll just make a series of scratch marks with your fingernail; the raised portion isn’t raised enough. It would been helpful to either make the fingernail-catching area a little more substantial or to make the microSD slot on the card reader spring-loaded. Frustration is not something you want to elicit in your customers.
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Conclusion
All in all, the concept behind the ATP SD Trio is quite innovative and convenient. I love having the ability to use the same piece of flash memory under four different contexts — microSD, miniSD, SD, and USB — but the implementation of this concept is quite poor in some respects. The performance, when used with the card adapters, is not up to snuff with its direct competitors and the physical design of the USB card reader makes for quite the frustrating experience in everyday use. The actual card adapters are fine though and work with little trouble on their own.
I guess with all things that dare to combine functions that are normally seperate, there are bound to be some compromises. For those that don’t need the intermediary step between SD and MicroSD, check out our review of the OCZ Trifecta as well.
Pros
- Convenient design provides incredible versatility
- Affordable multi-use solution
- Good build quality; card reader can survive boiling water
- Performance adequate for most consumers
Cons
- Could use more capacity beyond 1GB
- Difficult to remove microSD card from USB reader
- Poor performance with card adapters
- MiniSD placeholder in SD adapter not necessary
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