Introduction and performance
From time to time, a product that appears to be promising lands on your desk, but ultimately ends up being a bit of a disappointment. Toshiba's Canvio AeroMobile wireless portable SSD, which has a 128GB capacity, may sadly fall into that category if you're thinking of buying it purely for storage reasons.
Seagate, Samsung and Western Digital have added Wi-Fi to a hard disk drive but none have tried – to our knowledge – to swap a spinning drive for a solid state one.
In theory, doing so makes it lighter, much faster, more resistant to shocks and power efficient; Toshiba claims that it can stream data for up to eight hours. At £110 from John Lewis (around $168, AU$216), it comes dangerously close to the £1/GB barrier, which is about twice what I'd expect to pay for an SSD of similar capacity.
That said, this gadget combines an SSD with an SD card reader, Wi-Fi capabilities and a battery, and the combination works very well if you're ready to cough up for it.
Design
The AeroMobile is about 5-inch in length, 2.5-inch wide, roughly 0.5-inch thick (123 x 63 x 12.5mm), and at 4.23 ounces (120g) it is compact and light enough to fit in your jean's back pocket – it is about the size of the Apple iPhone 5. Plus it feels very sturdy.
Our review model was a champagne coloured one with a Toshiba logo stamped on the front and three status lights that indicated, from left to right, charging, Wi-Fi and power. On one side there's an SD card reader and on the top, a micro-B USB 3.0 port, the power button and a reset hole.
You won't be able to charge an additional device as you can with the Buffalo Mini Air 2 drive, though. Along with the drive itself, you also get a USB 3.0 cable, a charger and a black carry pouch.
Additionally, you can download a free app on iOS or Android to access the device remotely and to enable the pass-thru mode which will allow you to access the internet while connected to the Aeromobile.
Performance
We ran the AeroMobile through Crystal Benchmark and PCMark 8. Unsurprisingly, it delivered some stunning numbers, achieving 187MBps/168MBps in read/write speeds on Crystal, while hitting a score of 3616 mark on PCMark 8. Unsurprisingly, that's significantly better than any of the traditional external hard disk drives.
When it comes to wireless file transfer, the combination of 802.11n and solid state storage helped tremendously. As a media streamer, it was one of the more versatile we tested and managed to play all the media files we threw at it without breaking a sweat. And the fact that up to eight users can connect to it is a definite plus.
Mac users should note that they will need to install the Tuxera NTFS for Mac software that's bundle with the Canvio AeroMobile to get going.
Verdict
I'm in two minds when it comes to the AeroMobile. It is a great storage solution for those who are looking for this type of product, but others are likely to be taken aback by the sheer price per GB.
We liked
The AeroMobile is fast – indeed it's the fastest non-DIY wireless storage device we've tested. That is, of course, thanks to its flash-based storage. Opting for that solution also means a more resistant product, and one which enjoys a higher-than-average battery life.
We disliked
That said, 128GB of storage is not a lot compared to other products. True, you can add a 128GB SD card to double the available storage to 256GB for less than double the price, but that's your lot when it comes to expansion capabilities.
Final verdict
So, should you buy this offering? That all depends on your use case. For those who reckon that Verbatim's MediaShare wireless storage router might actually be a better option because it has a USB port, beware!
The latter is bulkier, heavier, only has a USB 2.0 port and only allows five people to connect. However, it costs a mere £24.99 (around $38, AU$47) and adding a 128GB SDXC card or USB 3.0 flash drive would only double the price, so it would still be about half the cost of the AeroMobile.
The other attractive option, especially if you're after storage, is to get a wireless hard disk drive like the ones we've mentioned at the beginning of this review. Seagate's Wireless Plus 2TB portable hard drive has 16 times the capacity of the AeroMobile and costs only 45% more.
from TechRadar: Technology reviews http://ift.tt/17ECyQw
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