CateckBus-Powered USB 3.0 3-Port Aluminum Hub with SD/TF Card Reader Combo for iMac, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, MacBook, Mac Mini, PCs and Laptops

Finally got this item after 5 year of reaching behind my iMac for USB connections. Item feels very high quality and matches the look of the aluminum iMac as well as keyboard and trackpad. You would think that this is an OEM Apple product.Item was nicely packaged in a cardboard box and both items were wrapped in sealed plastic. Includes a white cord vs a traditional black one which makes it blend in nicely with the look of Apple products.Item has a small circular hole in the back as if its powered, not sure what it is for. Its also a little bit difficult to keep it stable, a little bit of 3M mounting squares fixed that.There wasn't any negligible time difference when using this HUB vs the built in USB ports.Copying from 1.35GB of photos from the USB hub to computer took 53 seconds, and 2 minutes 43 seconds to write the same amount of data from computer to USB hub. When connected directly from USB flash drive into built in USB port it took 54 seconds to transfer from USB to computer and 2 minutes 39 seconds to transfer from computer to USB.Per owners manual:High power consumption devices aren't recommended; as well as this isn't intended as a stand alone charger. iPads and other devices with irregular charging requirements are not compatible.

This product is falsely advertised at a 3.0 USB hub. It is actually at 2.0 hub. After plugging it in and going to the Hardware Overview to see the status of the hub it is listed as 2.0. I have returned it. I am very frustrated. This usb hub also made my computer crash every time it went to sleep. I am assuming because of some bad regulator or no regulator at all. The power supply was pushing electricity back into my computer forcing it to shut down.

Bought this for my new MacBook Pro with USB 3.0 inputs. I've connected an external hard drive that I use for my Time Machine. Pleased with the performance so far. But, the hard drive isn't USB 3.0. However, I did transfer images from my SD card with this hub. Very fast indeed.To make sure everything everything works to order, I bought the Cateck DC 5V 2A/2000mah charger 3.5mm AC Power Adapter to insure that my peripherals receive enough power to stay connected.If I find that the hub malfunctions in any way, I'll be sure to update this review.

I purchased this to add more external ports to my new 4K computer I built, had my hopes this would fill my needs, it looks to be of great quality and design, I even bought the charger for it.Well after a few months of using it, it’s not reliable, sometimes the USB ports work and sometimes they don’t, and the speeds they say it can transfer at are not even close, it won’t take a memory stick, I have to plug the memory stick into a stand alone hub and then plug the hub into this hub for it to work, and the SD memory card slot don’t work and the micro SD slot don’t work, it never did.I have Win10 pro system with an AMD Ryzen 7 Eight Core Processor, 32 Gigs of RAM, with a video card to match, a Radeon RX 570 Series video card, and numerous 3.0 USB ports and I was hoping that this hub would do the trick.I tried everything to get it to work, no errors show up, they just don’t work right.Maybe it will work on a lesser system but not on mine, the good thing is that I can still attach external hard drives to it and printers and a DVD player/recorder and it works great, it’s just with no cards and no thumb drives. It’s way past my time to return it:(

This hub replaces one that I've used for a long time because it was the older USB slow format. My old one was a Belkin hub that had 5 ports on the back and two on the front for easy access. It came with a large transformer to not overload your computer if you happen to plug in more than one devices that require more power than the bus on your computer can offer. In the case of the Catec hardware, it's an attractive little box that tries to match the look of Apple keyboard or trackpad hardware with the brushed aluminum look and round inserts on the side. It has three USB-3 ports on the front, and two SD cards slots. It conveniently has a rubber no-skid bottom so if your desk is glass it won't skid around when you plug something into it.It doesn't come with a transformer to give you more boost if say, you plug in three portable hard drives and want to copy data between them. If you plan on doing that, then you need to buy the optional DC power adapter, (wall wart) that powers the device. So I did. This brings the price up on the device a few more bucks. What I discovered that the first time I hooked it all up, the unit got warm. And, neither of the SD card slots worked. Plugging in a card, I got nothing. I tried it many times and still nothing. So, I decided to reset it by unplugging the main USB cable on the rear and plugging it back it again. For some reason and I haven't a clue why, that worked. The SD slots suddenly worked for the first time. Having those slots and three USB ports on my desk is a real convenient thing, and since I unplugged and re-plugged it back in, I've had no further problems with it. Strange, but it appears to be working correctly now. I'll give it some time and see if it holds up as well as the old Belkin model did, which they no longer make. That thing was at least 10 years old and still ticking.

This is very nice looking, but the USB plug in devices don’t fit the USB holes well at all. One of the holes took my flash drive in crooked. I have a new MAC desktop and I bought this because it’s a pain putting USB devices into the back of the MAC, but they didn’t ask my opinion before they designed it! So, I was really hoping this would work well. The minute I plugged it in I got an error message. I plugged in my SD card and it read it, so I ignored the error message. I’ll keep trying to see if it will work better, but......... I might have to end up returning it.

I bought this product after reading the 5 star and 1 start reviews. Much has been said, I'll just say this - it works perfectly.I've seen USB hubs come and go in my household. I can also compare it to this one:Sabrent 4-Port USB 3.0 Hub with Individual Power Switches and LEDsTo dismiss some of the claims of those who gave 1 star.Apparently is does not work with USB2 ports. Wrong. It does. I tested it on the following computers: - old HP laptop with only USB ports - connected 1 USB 3 2TB Buffalo drive (no additional power needed). connected 1 USB2 500Gb LG drive (both with no additional power and with additional power extension) SD card from a camera Connected Samsung smartphone to charge. All worked. I transferred aprox. 40GB of films from the UBS2 drive to the laptop disk, 30 minutes, not a glitch - 6 year old PC with USB2 only ports. You must make sure you don't connect them to the front ports, many PC's have front and back USB ports. The front one did not work, the ones at the back worked. I think you need to check what your USB ports are delivering. A PCI card with a new USB3 port may fix your problems. It's not the hub's fault. - brand new Toshiba ultrabook with one USB3 port. I did the same test. Connected USB3 drive, USB2 drive, SD cards, power cable to the smart phone. Transferred 40GB of files from a USB2 external LG drive to a USB3 Buffalo external drive - less than 15 minutes. It works.I would like to dismiss the comments about connections. This hub's connectors are very sturdy. As they have to be. The ones on the hub I mentioned "Sabrent 4-Port USB 3.0 Hub" are not so sturdy, because when moving the hub with your drives connected they can get disconnected. Not with this hub. Yes, they are stiff, they must be.It is also not true it does not work with USB keyboards and mice. Maybe it's the type of device or vendor. I connected a wireless mouse from Logitech M185. Works. Added old Logitech cabled keyboard. All work.As for the operating system I only tested these features on Linux. The response to map the drives is fast. Not a single problem connecting and disconnecting. I don't have an iMac, nor a Windows box. Maybe on Windows it's a matter of drivers, I can't comment on that. I am very happy with the way this hub looks. Some people even complain about the way it looks or feels. To me it's a matter of taste, from a product that would claim to of of Apples quality - I think it deserves it, although I cannot really judge as I don't own Apple products.I will attach pictures of my devices connected to prove a point.

As for the unboxing, the packaging includes the hub itself, in addition to a data sync cable, and a manual going over safety info and device compatibility. The product is very well designed and looks great, the hub offers cars support which is fast via the USB 3.0 interface, and offers great speeds for transferring photos, videos etc. from SD cards. There is an included rubber base, which stops the hub from moving around, which makes using the product a lot better. As for USB Type A ports, there work as intended, and is great for connecting many devices when wanting to search for backup files on many drives.Overall am impressed by the product, and offers great flexibility, the design is great, and the rubber base makes it easy to use. Have not tested the micro SD slot, however am more than sure it'll work. Dan.

I can't test this yet as I've had to order a longer USB 3 cable @ £5.49 as I actually bought this to add USB 3 connections to my desktop from my on-the-floor workstation which is at least 2m away once you run the cable down and round the back of my worktops and round to the PC - and not that unusual a requirement I would have thought. The unit itself looks great, well-engineered, the 75cm USB cable very sturdy abd he base has a good non-slip finish. I would urge the supplier/manufactured of this unit to add a 2m cable package option being the only reason for knocking a star off the rating. My fault for not having read the cable length description, which is there.

I have a Macbook Pro and wanted a USB hub to match the same material which also had an SD-card reader built in. I have a card reader in the MacBook but for whatever reason its always temperamental.I bought this hub, it came nicely boxed and it's a really nice bit of kit. The colour match is perfect and the USB sockets and SD card slots work great.It connects with 1 x usb cable which is supplied. It also seems to be a great quality cable - its possibly the thickest USB cable I've ever seen.I would buy this again and would happily recommend.If you found this review useful, please click below.

I bought this to give me extra USB ports so I do not have to keep unplugging and re-plugging leads into the back of the computer. This hub comes with a few instructions and so some trial and error is needed. Looking from the front, the far right is suitable for phone charging and the centre USB port is lower power so a slower charge rate. The left port is not suitable for charging but it can handle the mouse. I have not used the SD slots. The Hub is useful and I expect it will prove worthwhile as time goes on. The best thing is the hub can be at the front and there is no need to reach around the back of the computer.