Fast transfers from multiple SD and microSD cards.
Should I Buy The Kingston Workflow Station?
Pros
- Super-fast transfers
- Portable miniHubs
Cons
- Requires extra minihubs
Our Verdict
Price When Reviewed
- $135.99
The Kingston Workflow Station is a different kind of USB-C dock, focussed on enabling super-fast file transfers from connected cameras, Flash storage and USB sticks.
It’s aimed at professional photographers and videographers on 4K/8K multi-cam shoots with portable audio recorders or filming B-Roll with recording drones and GoPros and action cameras.
The dock doesn’t feature video ports for connecting external displays or other slots you’ll find on standard USB-C docking stations. This one is dedicated to multiple and simultaneous file offloads from SD and microSD cards.
The Workflow Station connects to your computer via USB-C at its fastest possible speed as it boasts 20Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 performance.
USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 is smarter and faster than Gen 2 because it uses two lanes of 10Gbps at once.
We’ve tested docks with Gen 2 10GBps connections before, but Kingston has invested in top USB-C speed here.
Of course, Thunderbolt 3 at 40Gbps is even faster, but, for the features on the Workflow Station, 20Gbps is enough.
The modular Workflow Station dock itself has four top-mounted USB-C slots, which is where you place special miniHubs that boast the required connections - for example, for SD cards or microSD cards.
The miniHub connection is USB 3.2 Gen 1x2, so 10Gbps, but the link from the dock to the computer is Gen 2x2, so can handle 20Gbps - more than enough to take on the potential eight cards or USB sticks in the miniHubs at full speed.
The dock comes with a miniHub that has a USB-A port and a USB-C port for memory sticks and other storage devices.
You can also purchase a miniHub with two SD card slots and another with two microSD card slots – so you can customise your setup as it suits your storage format needs.
The card slots are in UHS-II format (backwards compatible with UHS-I), so each capable of 312MBps transfer. See our roundup of the best microSD cards.
In tests, the read and write speeds exceeded those in a standard Thunderbolt 3 dock with SD card reader.
There’s potential for up to eight card or USB slots in the dock, all of which can be in use simultaneously using up that 20Gbps (8 x 312MBs = 2,500MBs = 20Gbps) bandwidth.
Of course, the host computer needs to be capable of that speed, too. Laptops or PCs with 20Gbps USB-C are rare, so we’re really looking at Thunderbolt 3 computers as the required host having the files transferred to.
Even better, the miniHubs (weighing 30g) can work independently of the dock, so can be used out and about with you, and can connect straight to your laptop.
That said, the dock itself is light (292g) and reasonably compact (16-x-70-x-56cm) so is pretty portable itself, although its power adapter (xg) takes up space.
The power adapter does ship with four country converters (US, UK, EU and AU/NZ) so can travel without the need for separate plug adapters.
Price
Verdict
Aimed at pro photographers, the Workflow Station offers super-fast, simultaneous file transfers in a modular and customisable form, with portability and speed at its core.
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