Closer Examination

The Kingston Workflow Station comes inside a plastic wrap to keep it clean and free of dust out of the box, and removing it, we get our first look at the unit. I must say I was a touch let down when I actually held it in my hands, perhaps because I was expecting something more solid and well built. The entire chassis is made out of plastic, so the Workflow Station feels light and more toy-like than I would like. But I am reminded of the whole point with the support for travel as needed, so having a lighter product helps there. I suspect most customers will not travel with the entire station, however, so overall, I would say that better build quality would have been nice to see. Pricing will dictate my opinion in the end, however, so let's reserve final judgment for the conclusion. Perhaps it is supposed to be a more budget-friendly unit.

The Workflow Station otherwise adopts a silver and black color scheme, with a lustrous silver finish to the plastic on the sides. The top surface angles upwards with the four openings for the readers/hubs, such that the top two slots are higher up than the bottom two for ease of access. Here, we see a male USB Type-C connector jutting out the middle at the bottom of each slot, which is the connectivity for the individual units in these slots. So the Workflow Station is effectively a powered USB Type-C hub. The cutouts are smooth and shaped to fit the individual units like a jigsaw puzzle, with grooves on the side acting as guides.


The sides give us a better look at the casing, especially of the silver trim going over the black chassis. On the front facing the user is the Kingston logo, and on the bottom, we see two rubber pads that prevent scratches and add friction against the resting surface. We also see certification information on the bottom, and find out that this was made in Taiwan. On the back facing away from the user is where we see the two ports on the Workflow Station for the power and data connections, which is where the previously seen cables plug in.


The Workflow Station comes with a USB hub reader included, if only to give you back the occupied Type-C port. The USB hub is equally lightweight and pretty much solely made out of plastic, with a similar design as the station consisting of a silver trim around a black chassis that also has the Kingston logo on front. On the top is a full-size USB Type-A port and the aforementioned Type-C port, both of which are compliant with the USB 3.2 Gen 1 standard, aka good old USB 3.0. On the bottom is a Type-C port, which plugs into the connector in any of the Workflow Station slots. You can also skip the station altogether and go with the Type-C to Type-C cable to directly connect this to your PC if that is all you are using it for.


The memory card readers are optional extras, but really are the only reason to get the Workflow Station since it makes no sense to use the bigger station with the single USB hub reader. At this time, Kingston makes a full-size SD card reader as well as a microSD card reader. Both come in blister plastic packaging, which will test your patience during unboxing since it will take a sharp object to pierce through and retrieve the contents. Each of the readers is self-sufficient in that it comes with a Type-C to Type-C cable, allowing you to use them separately outside of the Workflow Station, as with the USB hub. Except on top, of course, the design is nearly identical across all three readers. They all weigh within a gram of each other as well, so I will grant that the design scheme is extremely consistent across the board. The memory card readers have two slots each for their respective form factor, which also matches the USB hub as it has two ports. We can also better see the grooves on the sides to fit these inside the Workflow Station slots.


Kingston also sent along their Canvas React Plus kits for an SD card and microSD card, which will have us test the Workflow Station hub with the various readers in addition to the accompanying USB card readers for comparison. As it stands, the station occupied by the three readers does look the part, though I would have liked to see a CF/CFExpress card reader to complete the set.