Cotchear MINI Super Speed Micro SD/SDXC TF USB 2.0 Card Reader Adapter

I needed a way to add more storage to a laptop that surprising didn't have an SD card slot. This adapter fits the bill perfectly. Nice touches that I won't make use of are the plastic cover and lanyard, since I'll be leaving it permanently installed in the laptop. I've used it on a Macbook Air on MacOS 12 with no issues and intend to use it full time on an HP Windows 11 laptop. I am not too concerned about performance as this is not an USB 3.0 adapter, but for bunch of file transfers to move files off the hard drive, it worked fine. It comes with no documentation, and it took a moment to figure out you put the micro SD card - I am used to adapters like this taking the card in the part that sticks into the PC, but the Cotchear has a slot on the side facing out from the USB slot. Overall for the price, I think this is a must have if you are not too concerned about read/write performance. I liked the first one so much, I bought a second.

Update: ok, need more testing. It seems Tesla would stop recognizing the micro sd card after a while. Not sure if the issue is the sd card or reader. I’ll do more testing. I got this for TeslaCam and Sentry in the Tesla Mode 3. I also bought a Sandisk High Endurance 128GB micro-SD... and got whole setup for less than $40. I love this adapter bc it’s so tiny. The blue LED is very bright, so I put some black tape over it to not call attention to adapter when it’s plugged into the car. As another reviewer noted, the plastic that holds the string breaks easily. I broke that off myself... again, I don’t need to draw attention to the adapter in the car.

The small size was great, nearly flush with the USB port and the microSD card fit entirely inside. Unfortunately, it only lasted about a year before failing. The memory card was no longer recognized and when I went to remove it the adapter was extremely hot. The memory card was unharmed. It looks like a number of users have reported failures which is too bad for a near perfect adapter design to add more memory to a laptop.

I received this item for review inside a standard Amazon bubble-wrap envelop. The item is undamaged. I experienced good results with it in an MP3 player in my car. It has an extremely low profile, which was what I wanted. I liked it so much I ordered a second one. That one turned out to be a lemon; no ability to read any of my micro SD cards. I filed for a replacement through Amazon. If I have any difficulty getting a good replacement, I will return and amend this review. For now, I consider that my second one failing is just a fluke and I'm going with a full five.

It works well, it gives read and write access to the MicroSD card and is super tiny. But the indicator light is VERY bright and constantly flashes as the data on the card changes, which can be a nuisance if you're planning to have it in for long periods.

Extremely compact. I got this because I prefer to keep the adapter in my PC 24/7, and I don't have to worry about bumping this. The LED is quite bright which may bother some people.

Decent little unit, but it's pros are also it's greatest cons. This thing is SMALL; effectively it's the same size as those LogiTech keyboard/mouse transmitter units. This is great for pocket carry on your keychain, but it makes the unit difficult to remove from some tighter USB ports. The lanyard attachment point is Incredibly fragile. Do NOT attempt to remove the drive by pulling on the lanyard: if the port is even moderately tight you'll just break the lanyard point. That happened to me and now I have no way to carry this thing on my keychain. Utterly defeats the purpose. The dust cap is a great addition that so many of these seem to not have. A cap is practically mandatory if you're pocket-carrying this thing to prevent dust/lint from clogging up the connection slot, yet so few bother to include one. Downside though is that the cap is in no way tethered to the rest of the drive, nor is there any provision for it. So if the cap comes off in your pocket, it's just gone. The entire unit should be redesigned to include a tether for the dust cap and a much, much more robust lanyard loop. Additionally, maybe make the housing a little bit longer to make removal from the computer easier. Overall I give it 3 stars. It does what it's supposed to do, but it's difficult to remove, the cap isn't tethered, and the lanyard point is so fragile that when (not if, when) it breaks the unit is rendered useless for it's intended purpose.

I'm using this to give my Wii U Console extra internal storage, and it works perfectly. Make sure to get a high endurance card to go with it! It's so low profile it doesn't even look like it's in the console.