DriverGenius HB080 Multicard Reader Review

Our Verdict
The DriverGenius HB080 Multicard reader is a neat, moderately compact and stylish multi-card reader. It features three slots, microSD, SD and CF, and interfaces with your computer using USB 3.1, Type-C, to enable 5Gbps transfer speeds. The lightweight metal design looks great on the desktop, but I’m not sure how much abuse it would stand up to in a kit bag. Importantly, however, when it comes to performance, the small reader lives up to the transfer speeds reported by the company. While the reader is very neat and looks great, one of the best looking that I’ve seen, the inclusion of the CompactFlash slot is a little outdated and redundant. The vast majority of photographers. No matter the reader does the job for SD and microSD cards, there’s no arguing with the price.

What is the DriverGenius Multicard Reader?
Looking for a card reader? Then you’ll probably have taken a quick look, realised that the options out there are overwhelming and more than likely clicked to buy the first one that looks roughly OK.

To be honest, that’s probably one of the best approaches, but at the same time, it can be a complete lottery. The DriverGenius is one of those readers that appears high up in the results, and with its 3-in-1 design, simple style, USB Type-C connection and of course, a price that’s no surprise.

At less than £20/$20, this is a relatively cheap multi-card reader, especially when considering the USB Type-C connection.

The reader goes for the dongle design style, which makes it far more appropriate for photographers than the USB stick design. Having the unit on the desk in front of you so that cards can quickly be swapped makes life that little bit easier.

The rest of the design is stylish yet simple, with the metal body smoothly curved at the edges and the transfer cable being an integral part of the device.

The three slots on the front are an all good size, and after a month of testing and using them daily, the click in slots for the SD and microSD cards all seemed to hold together well.

The sizing of these slots is also spot on, so no wiggling of cards is required to get them to fit.

Overall the DriverGenius multi-card reader looks promising with the decent build quality, USB Type-C connection and multi-card interface.

Performance
UHS-II SD card slotted in with a reassuring click, and it’s time to test the transfer speeds using the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test.
Instantly the card reader shows impressive performance

Read: 190.3 MB/s | Write: 263.6 MB/s

Transferring 273 files at 12.5GB to a MacBook Pro 2019 took 53 seconds, showing a real-world transfer speed of 235 MB/s.

These results for the UHS-II SD card were impressive and reflected by the transfer speeds of the MicroSD card and CF cards.

DriverGenius Multicard reader review Final Thoughts
At present, this card reader can be purchased for a very respectable £15. After a month, I could find little to fault with the readers quality, it worked well at transferring the data from SD and MicroSD cards well, and the speeds that it did the job were excellent. Admittedly faster than the reader I usually use.

However, I do have a few small doubts. The build quality and design are good, but it does feel lightweight. I’m more comfortable using this card reader at home in a location where it’s not going to get bashed by other kit for fear that the sleek outer casing would sustain damage.

Then there’s the CF card slot, which I’m sure is useful for some people, but today I would expect to see a more popular format used for that valuable third slot.

At present, while the market is flooded with these 3-in-1 multi-card readers with the CF slot, there are far fewer with the CFExpress slot that would be more useful with the present batch of cameras.

However, if you need a cheap card reader with fast transfer speeds for your home computer, the DriverGenius is a good choice.