NZXT Aperture M Card Reader Review

So there we have it, a fairly straightforward look at what is essentially a fairly straight forwards device, NZXT have hit on a winner here, while yes its functionality is simple, it delivers on its promise of being a functional device coupled with some solid design and style.

Sure its not worth benchmarking the performance of this thing like we usually do in hardware reviews, but performance is all down to the card you insert in there, transfer speeds will be more dependant on your system and motherboard given that the hardware runs natively off your motherboards USB 2.0 connections, the same goes for the USB 3.0 ports that are also natively connected to your motherboard.

The best feature here though has to be the number of connection options available, sure we may not all have a full range of different memory card requirements, but given that on a daily basis I take an average of around 50 photographs a day when I’m reviewing products, I was having to rely on a slow USB cable to transfer rather large files from my camera to my PC, now I can plug my SD card direct into the PC and work straight from the SD card, the amount of time this saves for me personally is staggering and if you work in a job or even have a hobby that requires a lot of photography, then having support for so many formats is a massive advantage, especially if you have a few cameras that all have different memory types.

Of course this isn’t just aimed at camera memory cards, lots of devices have external storage cards, from mobile phones, laptops, tablets, mp3 players and so much more, but at the end of the day its a product that you either need or don’t need, but the leap from using USB cable transfer from the device to directly plugging in the memory card has made a huge impact on file transfer speeds for me, I’m sure this is an advantage that could benefit many people.

Given that this device only costs a little over £20, I see that as a really good deal, its very well made, it does exactly as advertised and the added bonus of working as a USB 3.0 upgrade kit for anyone who has USB 3.0 on their motherboard but not on their chassis is another big advantage of this device, which is why I am happy to award the NZXT Aperture M our Editors Choice Award, as this is definitely a product I will be personally using for the foreseeable future.