The Adapter

The APIOTEK 12-in-1 Express Card Adapter has a stainless steel chassis which not only looks nice, it also makes the adapter physically tougher. This is important as the adapter does not come with any protective case.

Of course, since it's just 75mm long, it will fit flush with the notebook chassis when fully inserted. In fact, APIOTEK designed it to do so. That's why the entire adapter is a uniform 5mm thick.

Unless you intend to use other Express Cards, you can leave it inserted in the Express Card slot. That keeps it conveniently out of the way, protected and ready for use.

On one end is the Express Card connector. Since the adapter is more or less similar on both ends, you can feed the adapter the wrong way. So, be sure to check the white arrows printed on both sides of the adapter.

The flash memory card slot itself looks pretty similar to the Express Card connector, albeit with a larger "hole".

Due to the size limitation imposed by the need to fit the adaptor flushed against the notebook chassis, the adapter can only support small card formats like SD, MMC and Sony Memory Stick.

Even though the adapter is designed to fit flush with the notebook's chassis, you cannot insert the flash cards entirely into the adapter.

The most you can go is halfway. This results in the cards sticking out like a sore thumb.

This is because the adapter doesn't come with an ejection mechanism, which is understandable since there's so little space to work with. All it has is a simple contact point for the flash cards.

This should not be a problem though. Just remember to remove the card before you stash away the notebook.