Taking a look at this Llano F17 Pocket 4.0 card reader and storage device. Keep in mind that Llano did send me this to try out and make a video on based on my collaboration terms, which means they have no say in the content of anything I produce. And also, they aren't allowed to preview anything.
Watch the full video on YouTube:
This device functions as portable storage and a palm-sized high-speed card reader. It is designed to offer dual card simultaneous reading as an added bonus.
 |
| Taking a first look at the retail packaging for the Llano F17 Pocket 4.0 card reader. |
It comes with a USB-C to USB-A adapter in the box. If you want the maximum speed, you will want to avoid using the adapter and connect to your PC or phone with the USB-C connection, but it's nice that it comes with an adapter for older systems.
 |
| Showing the included USB-C to USB-A adapter. |
The physical design of the reader is quite unique. It operates as a little clamshell case with the memory card ports on the side.
 |
| The two memory card ports on the side of the device. |
 |
| The internal section is made of silicone and has some flexibility. |
This product can store two standard SD cards and four micro SD cards. The labeling on the reader ports marks the micro SD slots as "TF" and the standard SD slots simply as "SD".
TF stands for TransFlash, which was the original name for the micro SD card format introduced in 2004. Today, TF cards and micro SD cards are physically and technically the same, meaning a micro SD card will fit perfectly into a slot labeled for TF. (Generated by Gemini Pro)
 |
| A micro SD card partially inserted into the device. This slot is spring-loaded. |
The built-in cable features what feels like a cloth wrap. It also has a nice little clamp thing on it so that the cable forms a loop you can use to carry the device.
 |
| A close-up view of the cloth-wrapped extension cable and the built-in cable clamp. |
Moving on to specifications, the reader supports USB 3, but it is backwards compatible. The data transfer speed says 180 to 312 megabytes a second read, and 150 to 250 write. It does support UHS-II memory cards.
UHS-II (Ultra High Speed II) is an SD card bus interface that supports theoretical maximum data transfer speeds up to 312 MB/s[1]. It achieves this high speed by utilizing a second row of connection pins on the back of the memory card[2][3]. (Generated by Gemini Pro)
 |
| Comparing a standard SD card with a single row of pins to a UHS-II card with a second row of pins. |
To demonstrate, I compared a UHS-II card to a regular one. You can see the pins are different. The UHS-II card has a second row of pins. It would be the same situation with a micro SD card, but I don't have any UHS-II micro SD cards on hand to show or test with.
I ran a few tests to see how the reader performs in the real world. First, I used an laptop that is too old for USB-C, so I used the included adapter. It successfully mounted two different drives, which is good. It was going around 40 megabytes a second, with both transferring at the same time. It was doing about a 50/50 split of that data transfer. The adapter is clearly limiting the speed because the port I had used was USB-A 3.0 (blue port).
 |
| Testing the card reader on an older laptop using the included USB-A adapter. |
Next, I connected it directly to an Android 11 phone. Keep in mind, the manual notes that some phone models may not support hot swapping due to system limitations, so they suggest filling the F17 first before connecting it to the device. The phone fully supports reading two drives simultaneously. However, transferring a single video file that was about 50 megabytes was taking a while.
[Editor's Note: The slow transfer speeds on the smartphone might be due to the phone's specific internal storage speeds or an older USB standard on the phone's port, bottlenecking the reader's performance in this specific test.]
 |
| Using the card reader with an Android 11 smartphone via a direct USB-C connection. |
Finally, I tested it using a native USB-C port on a modern computer to see how it goes. This is where it really performed. With a UHS-II capable card, I was getting around 150 megabytes a second. Specifically the Lexar Professional 64GB V60 1000x SDXC SD card. So, not quite double the speed of my older standard readers, but it's up there. That could be the limit of my specific card in this case, but it was definitely a lot faster.
 |
| Achieving 150 megabytes a second transfer speed when using a proper USB-C connection. |
Overall, it's a very interesting device. It has a unique setup with the extension type cable thing. If you do have a phone or something, that will probably work just fine considering it's a standard USB-C connection point.
 |
| Looking at the built-in USB-C cable which makes it easy to connect to phones that have cases given the standard sized connector and built-in extension cable. |
The downsides are that it is could be awkward potentially to carry and use. With the included adapter, you're going to get slow speeds of around 40 megabytes a second maximum. So, if you can find a different adapter, maybe you could make it faster, but generally, you're going to need the USB-C port at full speeds for getting the proper performance from your UHS-II cards.
 |
| The USB-C connector on the F17. |
Otherwise, it is a very functional and unique type of storage and memory card device. If you want to see exactly how these data transfers look in real time, be sure to head over and watch the full video!
Again, keep in mind that Llano did send me this to try out and make a video on based on my collaboration terms, which means they have no say in the content of my videos and such, and they were not allowed to preview it. Scott of Photography Banzai. Thanks!
llano F17 Clamshell Memory Card Reader & Storage device:
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases! Usually anything within 24 hours of the visit. It doesn't have to be the products I linked.
The full live stream where I tested the F17, another SD card reader, and a camera cleaning kit: