Lexar Professional Workflow Card Reader and Drive Hub Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

At the time of writing, the Lexar Professional Workflow HR1 hub can be had for $47.66 at NewEgg, £39.48 at Amazon UK, and €51.89 through Geizhals.

The Lexar Professional Workflow UR1 triple microSD card reader can be found at Amazon US for $42.95, Amazon UK for £23.00, or through Geizhals for €29.61.

The Lexar Professional Workflow SR2 SDXC card reader will set you back $39.32 at NewEgg, £14.78 at Amazon UK, and €19.40 through Geizhals.

You can get the Lexar Professional Workflow CFR1 CompactFlash reader for $16.99 at NewEgg, £14.95 at Amazon UK, or starting from €21.89 through Geizhals.

Finally, the Lexar Professional Workflow CR1 CFast 2.0 card reader can be found for $41.43 at NewEgg, £22.20 at Amazon UK, or starting from €28.86 trough Geizhals.

Conclusion

There is no shortage of card readers on the market, but it is far from all of them that have the same capabilities as the Lexar Professional Workflow series that I tested today. While it might be tempting to get something small and universal that will read everything, these direct readers with their individual design will provide you with the best possible transfer speeds.

The Workflow HR1 drive hub adds an awesome convenience to the entire system. You can simply plug and play up to four card readers or Workflow portable SSDs into the slots and connect it to your system with a single USB 3.0 cable. You can naturally also connect all the readers individually if you should wish to do so. The HR1 hub also features a dedicated power supply to make sure that there is enough power for that many drives at once.

The Lexar Professional Workflow UR1, SR2, and CFR1 card readers all performed very well and easily achieved the memory cards speed ratings. The CFR1 even managed to take the Kingston Ultimate 600x card far beyond its 90MB/s rating and provided us with speeds up to 150MB/s. This all speaks for the quality of these card readers.

Lexar included plenty of coverage on the Workflow series as each of the drive bays in the hub can be covered with a hard plastic piece and each of the card readers front can be covered with a silicone cover. Both things will extend the overall lifetime of both your readers and memory cards by keeping it dust and dirt free.

Pros

• Card reader and portable SSD hot-swapping
• Mix and match readers and drives as you please
• USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt 2 support
• Firm stand
• Individually connectable readers

Cons

• none

“Lexar Professional Workflow card readers and drive hub provide the ultimate flexibility for video-, photographers, and other people using a lot of memory cards. Simply mix and match the Workflow series to create your perfect memory card and backup station.”

Thank You Lexar for providing us with this sample.