Ohm Sd Card Reader Has Serious Design Flaw By Joan Young on Sep 13, 2009 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

I am very unhappy with this card reader because of its shape. Actually, I would return it except that I bought it while traveling, and the closest Target store to us is 100 miles away.

My GFM Card Reader has developed some problems and I couldn't find a replacement locally before I left for my last trip. So I stopped on the way to try to find a reader for SD cards. I stopped at a Target store. This was the only option, and so I bought it without really thinking about the shape.

Well, of course, I needed to use it with my laptop which has two USB ports on the side, side by side. And here is where the problem lies. One of those ports is used by my mini-mouse, and the card reader will not fit beside it. So to use the card reader I have to use the touch pad on my laptop. Not fatal, but really annoying. My desktop has the USB ports stacked rather than side-by-side, and it won't work in them with something else in an adjacent slot either. Another solution would be to get a “splitter” that gives you more USB ports, but I don't have one.

Also, it can only read SD cards. For not very much more money there are other brands which read several kinds of cards.

On the plus side, it does read high capacity SD cards, and regular ones as well. Data transfer is listed as 480 MB/sec. It has a snap on cover for each end which offers some protection for the electronic connections, but those would be very easy to lose, so I don't think they are a big plus.

If Meijer ever gets more of their GFM brand of card reader in stock I will get another of those. I like it a lot better.