Review: Lexar LRWM03U-7000 microSD UHS-I Card Reader USB 3.0

Introduction

The Lexar LRWM03-7000 microSD card reader is included with Lexar Professional 633x UHS-I microSD cards. It is not sold separately. The card reader supports all microSD cards including standard SD and UHS-I. Although UHS-II cards can be used in the reader, it does not have the UHS-II interface and will operate at UHS-I speed only (the interface is limited to 104MB/s and below). The card reader supports USB 3.0 and is backwards compatible with USB 2.0.

The reader is made of white and blue textured plastic. It has a small hole that could be be an attachment point for a key chain. The reader measures 1 1/4 inches (32mm) in length by 11/16 inches (17mm) wide and 3/8 inches (9mm) tall, including the USB connector. When a microSD card is inserted in the reader it does not extend past the end of the reader. There is no card indicator light.

Performance

Although this is a "free" card reader included with the purchase of Lexar UHS-I microSD cards, it provides decent performance. The highest read speed benchmark was 95.7 MB/s and sequential write speed reached 90.6 MB/s. This was marginally faster than the similar Lexar LRWM05U-7000 UHS-II microSD card reader when tested with UHS-I cards, although the UHS-II reader provides much higher performance when used with UHS-II cards.

Reader: Lexar LRWM03U-7000 UHS-I microSD Reader
Benchmark: CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3 x64
Program settings: 1000 MB, 5 passes, random test data
Operating system: Windows 10 Pro
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H
Processor: Intel Core i7-3770K @ 4.40GHz
RAM: 32GB DDR3 1600