Kingston Wi-Drive Review

An issue faced by most mobile phone users is the lack of storage available on their devices. Sure one can keep deleting their data and adding new files, but where is the fun in that? One would surely want to preserve their treasured music or videos on the device itself and have something added on for that additional bit of data. Most Android users have this easy as they can add on a microSD card that can do this, but what about iOS devices and Android smartphones, like the Galaxy Nexus, HTC One X and a few others? Here’s where Kingston has come in and offered a unique ultra portable storage solution for these devices by introducing the Wi-Drive.

Sleek and can fit in a pocket

Design and Build Quality
This is essentially a wireless storage device. But when one thinks of this sort of device, their mind usually assumes it will be that bulky storage drive that can fit a multitude of internal hard drives. However, that is not the case at all with the Wi-Drive and instead it is a slim sleek device that can fit easily in the palm of a hand. Suited in glossy black with a silver strip rounding the sides, this is one attractive piece of hardware. At first glance, one may actually liken it to the styling of the iPhone 3GS, because of the silver strip and the all gloss finish. But the Wi-Drive is a lot thinner in comparison.

The power button is located on the side of the drive and it features an LED indicator as well. Apart from this LED indicator, next to the power button, the face of the drive features two more LED indicators that housed in the body itself. These indicators denote connections for network and Wi-Fi. Other than that this drive does not feature much else as compared to say the Seagate GoFlex Satellite that had a range of connectivity options. The only input found here is the mini USB port that is located at the top. As for the build quality, it appears sturdy enough to handle the wear and tear of daily activity.

Mini USB port featured here

Functionality
Though this device has features similar to a NAS device, it is basically not one. It is merely a wireless storage solution for a mobile phone that is pocketable. The Kingston Wi-Drive is available in two storage options, which are 16GB and 32GB. For the testing purposes, the brand have provided us with the 16GB model.

Basically, this device is extremely simple to use and it needs no unnecessary software that is required to be installed on the PC to get it to work. All one has to do is attach it to a PC using the mini USB cable and then they can dump files on the drive just like they would do on a USB flash drive or portable hard drive. To get this device paired with a smartphone, one needs to download the Wi-Drive app from either the Google Play store or the Apple App Store and install it on the smartphone. This app is completely free of charge and the file size of the app for Android smartphones is 693 KB, while for iOS devices it uses up to 3.8 MB of space.

To get started, one needs to dump files on the Wi-Drive hardware, such as music, videos and documents and then power it on. After that head on over to the settings on the smartphone and connect the Wi-Fi to the wireless connection of the Wi-Drive. This will automatically allow one to read data off the drive on the smartphone.

Silver finish at the sides

The interface of the app is easy to use with there being dedicated tabs for videos, music and images. Apart from these, one can also view files remotely, such as word and PDF. With the help of this application one can also copy documents in other supported apps as well. The application comes with a dedicated player, but it reads files that only the smartphone can recognize. So there are some limitations here. However, if one is using an Android device, then they can open video files using other third party software, like Rockplayer or Moboplayer to watch videos that are streamed onto the handset.

Android screenshot

A neat feature of this device is that it can be paired with up to three smartphones simultaneously and the same file can be viewed across the said three devices.  Another interesting feature of the Wi-Drive, which sets it apart from the competition is that it features an Internet bridge connectivity option. With this setting in place one can be simultaneously connected to the Wi-Drive as well as another Wi-Fi frequency. This allows one the ability to browse the Internet and run this app in the background or vice versa. This is a neat feature as one can use it to multitask between various app.