Sony MRW-E90 USB 3.1 Gen 1 XQD/SD Super Speed Memory Card Reader

£68/$70 www.sony.co.uk

The XQD format is gaining ground in high-end cameras, but XQD readers aren’t all that common or, in this case, cheap. That’s frustrating when Sony’s lightweight build makes the MRW-E90 feel less substantial than the bargain SanDisk reader.

We tested the E90 using a Sony 64GB XQD card, with claimed max read/write speeds of 440/400MBps. We could only manage 311/173MBps in a best-case scenario of transferring one large 4K video file. This is likely due to the reader’s USB 3.1 Gen 1 interface, which is much slower than its theoretical 625MBps peak.

The MRW-E90 also packs a UHS-II SD slot, but it only gave middle-of-the-road 221MBps read and 202MBps write speeds in our video transfer test. Moving multiple image files was more satisfying: 201MBps read and 112MBps write rates place the Sony at the top of the pile. UHS-I SD performance isn’t quite so admirable, although the Sony is no slouch, managing 93/83MBps read/write speeds.