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My favorite SD card reader is a mere $15 for Prime Big Deal Days

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The Lexar USB-C SD card reader.
Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends

I take a lot of pictures on a daily basis. And while I usually get to offload them in the comfort of my home, sometimes I need to export as quickly as possible. Maybe even straight from my phone.

That’s where my new favorite SD card reader comes in.

This Lexar USB-C dual-slot reader handles SD cards and microSD cards, with the ability to read up to 312MB per second. That’ll depend on the speed of your card, of course, but nobody wants to wait longer than necessary for the files to get from Point A to Point B. And it’s on sale today for Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days for just $15 and change — about 48% off the usual price.

Here’s what I love about it: First is the size. It’s not a clunky card reader by any standard. It fits in any pocket of any one of my bags. It even fits just fine in my pants pockets. That’s a big deal. Second is that it’s USB-C. That means it works with any of my computers, my iPad, or any of my phones. So if I have time to spare and can properly set up in a coffee shop somewhere to do some editing, fine. Or — and this part is still really cool — I can just pop the card out of my camera, attach the card reader to my phone, and do some quick and dirty editing that way. (Being able to process raw files on a mobile device is so great.)

The card reader doesn’t care what it’s hooked up to — all it knows is it’s connected via USB-C, so it’s going to do its thing. And every time it goes on sale like this, I pick up an extra one.

Because, just like gear bags, you can never have too many card readers at the ready.

Phil Nickinson
Former Section Editor, Audio/Video
Phil spent the 2000s making newspapers with the Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal, the 2010s with Android Central and then the…
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