Dazzle Universal 6-in-1 Card Reader Review

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Product Requirements:
Device:
Windows® 98SE, Windows® 2000, Windows® ME, and
Windows® XP, Mac OS 9.x

I’ve been on a quest for awhile now. The quest to find the perfect media card
reader. I started way back when with a Sandisk parallel port reader. It worked
great, but only accepted Compact Flash (CF) cards. I replaced it with another Sandisk reader
that was USB. It too only read CF cards. Shortly after I purchased that reader,
I obtained a device that used Secure Digital (SD) cards. So I chucked the Sandisk and began using
the

CSD4-USB 4-in-1 reader
. It worked great for awhile, but then I began using a
device that used Memory Sticks (MS). The CSD4-USB did not support this format, so I
found myself looking for yet another reader.

What I found was the Dazzle Universal
6-in-1 Card Reader. A small USB desktop model, this reader has slots that can
accommodate Compact Flash, IBM Microdrive, Smart Media, SD Card, Multimedia Card
and Memory Stick media.

dazzle 6in1 2

Made of grey plastic, the reader is light weight and has a 4 ft USB cable
attached to it. There are two slots on the front and a status LED on top.
Installing the reader under Windows XP is a no brainer. You just plug the cable
into a free USB slot and you’re finished. It does not require a power adapter or
drivers. Once it is plugged in, three new drives show up under My Computer. You
can treat these drives as you would a regular hard drive. Files can be copied to
and from them.

dazzle 6in1 1

This product is called a 6-in-1 reader, but it really only reads 4 types of
media: CF, SD/MMC, MS and SM. Enough acronyms for you? But as I mentioned above,
the reader only has 2 slots. How can 4 physically different types of cards fit
into only 2 slots? Glad you asked! The top slot is for CF and Microdrives and
the bottom slot is molded in such a way that SD/MMC, MS and SM cards can all
share it. Unfortunately not all at once though. I guess this reader should have
really been called the 4-in-1-but-not-at-the-same-time reader!

dazzle 6in1 6
Compact Flash card
dazzle 6in1 7
Secure Digital card
dazzle 6in1 4
Smart Media card

 

dazzle 6in1 3
Memory Stick slot
dazzle 6in1 5
Compact Flash and Memory Stick at the same time

Here’s the deal. CF cards have the top slot all to themselves. The cards
slide in right-side up and can only fit in the slot one way. The bottom slot is
shared by either a Memory Stick, SD/MMC or Smart Media card. Wait, it gets more
confusing… SD/MMC cards are inserted upside down, but can only fit one way. SM
cards are inserted upside down but can also fit right-side up. And, Memory
Sticks are also inserted upside down but can fit right-side up. This presents a
problem with a person such as myself. I often tell people that I have the memory
of a gnat.. and as such, during the review period, I was always inserting the
cards the wrong way and wondering why the heck they wouldn’t work. <sigh>

Although you can’t use 4 cards all at once, you can use 2 cards at once. One
in the top slot and one in the bottom slot. I found it disappointing that I
could not use all the cards at once. I even thought it might be possible to use
the SD/MMC at the same time as the SM cards. I was wrong. Although both can fit
in the slot, it will totally make your PC angry. The My Computer window crashed
when I tried this… eep!

I had another problem with this reader. I was unable to read a LEXAR 64mb
Memory Stick. I could read a Sony Memory Stick just fine though. The LEXAR stick
also worked fine in a Sony CLIÉ… So I’m not entirely sure what the problem
was. I tested a variety of CF, SD and SM cards without any problems.

Also included with the Dazzle reader is a program called OnDVD. This software
allows you to make photo slideshows and burn CDs for playback on your DVD
player. Of course you need a CD/RW for this task.

At the moment, this reader is my main one… But my quest continues as I am
looking for a true 4-in-1 reader. One where I can have all 4 types of media in
use at once in their own slots.
 

Price: $49.99 (available at
StylusCentral and other online
retailers)

Pros:
Able to read 4 popular media formats in one reader
Plug and play

Cons:
Can not use all four slots at once
Some cards can fit in the slots upside down

 

Product Information

Price:49.99
Manufacturer:Dazzle
Pros:
  • Able to read 4 popular media formats in one reader
  • Plug and play
Cons:
  • Can not use all four slots at once
  • Some cards can fit in the slots upside down

1 thought on “Dazzle Universal 6-in-1 Card Reader Review”




  1. Gadgeteer Comment Policy - Please read before commenting
  2. I hope that you can help, since your artical is over 10 years ago.
    I am not able to read all of a 2 GB CD card with my Dazzle* sn 317202337/09197
    Is there some sort of up grade or ????
    Thanks…
    John Silverdale WA.

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