Reviews |Pergear CFE-B Card Reader Review

Pergear CFE-B Card Reader Review

Review

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Price when reviewed

£39

$42
Check current price

Our Verdict

As card readers go, the Pergear CFE-B USB3.1 GEN 2, 10 Gbps, is about as good as they get. Style-wise it’s beautifully finished with its all-metal casing and reassuring weight.

Connection to a computer is provided using a USB Type-C cable, and then once the card is inserted, the drive pops up on the desktop, ready for file transfer.

Transfer speeds from the CFExpress card to the computer are impressively fast and in tune with this latest technology.

There are many card readers are out there, and most do the job, but the Pergear CFE-B Card Reader’s style and quality give it that premium edge.

For

  • High-quality build
  • Fast
  • Durable

Against

  • Relatively weighty

What is the Pergear CFE-B Card Reader?

Card readers are a simple necessity, and their role in the photographic workflow is understated. Essentially insert your memory card, copy the contents to your computer or storage device, and that’s it.

The Pergear CFE-B Card Reader does exactly that, with speed and reliability.

As is becoming more common with card readers, the Pergear CFE-B Card Reader features a single card slot for a CFexpress type-B. Connection to a computer is provided through a USB Type-C port which is backwards compatible with older USB formats.

The aluminium alloy casing gives the small (72 x 50 x 10mm) reader a bit of weight, tipping the scales at 80g. It also means that it’s perfectly suited to be thrown into a kit bag and will stand up to a knock or two. A nice touch is a rubberised base that means it happily stays put when you have it resting on your leg or laptop during the download process.

Performance

Over the month of testing, I used the Pergear CFE-B Card Reader  out in the field as well as back in the cool comfort of the studio, and to be honest, there’s little to report. As card readers go, it was reliable, always connecting and enabling fast downloads of image and video files to my computer.

Connected through USB Type-C to a 16-inch MacBook Pro, its performance was excellent, with 81.5GB from a 128GB CFexpress card downloading in 191 seconds. Essentially, that’s 427mb/s in a real-world test of Jpeg and raw files being transferred.

Inserting a 128GB Pergear CFE-B card and testing the reader using Blackmagic Design’s Disk Speed Test revealed the following impressive results:

Read: 912mb/s
Write: 523mb/s

These results show that this small card reader is faster than my existing CFexpress readers by some way.

Verdict

All most photographers want from a card reader is reliability and speed. The Pergear CFE-B card reader provides both and all in a beautiful aluminium alloy casing.

While some card readers cost a fortune, the Pergear CFE-B is well balanced, offering excellent value for money.

If you’re in the market for a good quality CFexpress card reader, then you really can’t go wrong with this one.