Nifty MiniDrive – Memory expansion with SD Card reader for MacBook Pro

Every now and then, peep out of really interesting products and more and more often it happens that they started from Kickstarter. This is also the case of Nifty MiniDrive.

An adapter for the SD slot of the MacBook allows you to insert the microSD without those emerging from the profile of the laptop. It is not a new product since the crowd funding campaign ended on August 3, 2012, but only now decided to test it.

Most-recent Mac has been now solid-state disks, fast but not particularly capacious. The idea of ​​having an extra drive 32 or 64GB of internal as well mind I do not think anyone but there is a limit of microSD format and has always been to dissuade me from purchasing this.

Just got the Nifty MiniDrive one thing I did not like at all is the packaging. It is a cardboard folded and perforated to open it in correspondence of the object and the staple which serves to remove it. Once you have extracted the contents of the carton will be unusable, and we have nothing to hold the Nifty and its staple. I would have much preferred a plastic housing that would allow to throw everything inside in case of need.

The object itself is very small. It looks like an SD cut in half, just the part that protrude from the case of the MacBook. Not being all equal size must choose the exact model of your laptop at time of purchase. Standard fittings include a 2GB microSD, something obviously not very useful, but I chose to put in a Samsung 64GB PLUS Micro SDXC which on paper appeared to be the fastest available on Amazon with a transfer rate of said 48MB/s.

Personally, I tested on a MacBook Pro 15″ Retina, but there is also the model for the traditional Pro and MacBook Air 13″ : in practice, all Mac laptops with SD reader. Nifty ordering it on the website you can choose from two colors, silver and red, while the Apple store is available only the silver, which is a coloring perfectly in line with the aluminum case of its computers.

Once given the aesthetic characteristics. we pass to the numbers: How does a microSD so connected? Samsung promises a speed of up to 48MB/s have been met almost entirely of reading, with a calculated transfer rate of about 45MB/s, write while we did not go over the 20MB/s. They are good numbers for a microSD but still very far from what you can offer or an internal SSD connected via USB 3.0, and also an excellent pendrive as the SanDisk Extreme 64GB.

In these external 64GB can hold movies, documents, and even your iTunes library. Given the reduced rate would not recommend to use this space to your iPhoto library or any other document that requires a full-bodied transfer rate to provide a good user experience.

Nifty MiniDrive – Conclusions

The idea behind the Nifty MiniDrive is very attractive, but in practice is not as exciting. The property is well designed to stay within the outline of the case of the MacBook, but the extraction system leaves something to be desired. It is true that it is difficult to imagine a more effective alternative, but remain bound to the paper clip is not the best, because the self-destruct upon opening the package and there is nothing left to store the Nifty and its clip. As regards the speed limit is larger than the microSD.

For the moment, the UHS-1 are rather slow when compared to other types of supports USB 3.0, but it is true that the advantage of Nifty is that the additional memory does not need to be transported or associate, is ready within the Mac course, there is also to consider the downside because if you usually use the SD reader on your computer, this will always be busy. The price is $39.99 on the site but recently Nifty is also available in the Store in versions for :

• Nifty MiniDrive for MacBook Pro 13″ & 15″
• Nifty MiniDrive for MacBook Pro 13″ & 15″ (Ratina)
• Nifty MiniDrive for MacBook Air 13″

As you can see it’s missing the drive for MacBook Pro 15″ Retina it is at present out of stock Nifty MiniDrive also on site. The product achieves sufficiency, but in our opinion does not go beyond.

80%

Good

Our Opinion

PROS : Memory expansion that does not require external connections., Cost is not too high, even if it is just an adapter.
CONS : Lack of a case., The microSD are not too fast.

• Overall