The Kingston FCR-U26/1 offers a clean external design. It doesn't offer flashy packaging, as do some of the other units, but it still is a good value for the price.

Kingston has been offering the FCR-U26/1 6-In-1 Media Reader/Writer for some time now. Kingston has focused on flash media as an additional area where it can flex its legendary reputation for offering quality products. While many consumers probably are unaware that Kingston offers anything beyond its memory products, Kingston offers a complete line of flash card readers/ writers. This is Kingston's first Multi-Format offering.

The FCR-U26/1 was packed in a nondescript, regular brown packing box, in contrast to the fancy retail packaging that normally is a part of Kingston's products. When we opened the box, we found the FCR-U26/1, a small instruction leaflet, and a driver disk that is required by some operating systems. The instructions leaflet was a bit on the 'light' side as far as content, but it did provide sufficient information to get the unit connected to the computer. Like the other devices that we have reviewed here, the FCR-U26/1 supports all of the major formats and is available as removable drives within Windows.

The size of the unit is good for an external desktop model. The FCR-U26/1 has a rubberized foot on the bottom of the unit which helps keep it from moving around during the media loading and unloading process. While the foot helps reduce the movement of the unit during the loading process, we still had to hold the unit to remove media from it.

The testing performance of the FCR-U26/1 was average and in line with other USB units we tested. We liked the styling of the FCR-U26/1 and its construction appears to be of good quality. If you are looking for a desktop external multi-format reader/ writer, the Kingston FCR-U26/1 is a plausible choice; however, there are other less expensive options, and the price factor could cause consumers to overlook this otherwise excellent unit.