Introduction and design
In the modern world with its myriad of devices, we inevitably end up with lots of files from cameras, phones and more. Often these will be quite precious, either for business or personal reasons, but when you're out and about you have no way of backing them up. We also want to consume media wherever we go and smartphones and tablets may lack the necessary storage.
The Asus Travelair N is aimed at people on the move who need a way of securing their information, or want to take their music and movies with them, but are unable to return to the comfort of a computer or network.
Design
It looks like any other portable hard drive, albeit rather chunkier than most 2.5-inch units, but the Travelair N is battery powered so you can use it anywhere to backup data from other portable devices.
The top has a shiny finish with a subtle swirly pattern and a chrome Asus logo. It looks smart though it does tend to be a bit of a fingerprint magnet. The edges are shiny and underneath is grained black plastic with a rather crude looking moulding mark in the centre. There's a power button on the right-hand side with LED indicators above it, an SD card slot on the left and a USB port on the bottom edge, both covered by flaps to keep out dust and dirt. It's supplied with a USB cable, mains charge adaptor and a brief instruction leaflet.
The Travelair offers a generous 1TB of storage plus an SD card slot to expand this space or to backup data from your camera. The clever part though is that it's a self-contained Wi-Fi network so you can transfer files to and from it wherever you are.
It's possible to connect up to five different devices at the same time. The Travelair also has NFC for one-touch transfers with devices that support it. You can download an Asus AiDrive app which lets you easily browse, stream, share and manage files on your Travelair N with your iPhone, iPad, Kindle Fire, or Android device.
It can be connected wirelessly to your home network to use it as a NAS drive to stream media to other devices including tablets and smart TVs. If you'd rather do things the old fashioned way it has a USB 3.0 port for fast wired transfers directly to and from a device.
Usage and verdict
Usage
You need to charge the battery for at least eight hours before its first use, though it promises eight hours' worth of life from a full charge. There are soft rubbery flaps over the USB port and SD card slot which feel a bit flimsy and as if they're likely to drop off at any moment. The one for the SD slot also tends to slide back under the device when you have a card inserted preventing it sitting flat on a surface. Those niggles aside, the device has a solid feel and it's IP43 water resistant, which means it will survive the odd accidental splash but don't go using it in the bath.
There is an LED to indicate when it's switched on and another to show that Wi-Fi is active. However, these are located on the edge and depending on how the drive is positioned they're not always easy to see.
Plug it into your PC and the Travelair acts like any other external drive. To connect to a phone or tablet you need to download the AiDrive app to your device. This has a smart-looking interface with sections for photos, videos, music and files. You can copy objects between the drive and your device and access files from the Travelair's SD slot. You also have the option to back up your camera files and contacts to the drive as well as backing up your SD card.
When the device is powered on it appears on your list of wireless networks and you can connect without a password. Once connected the AiDrive app gives you the option to enable WPA2 security to protect your data. You can change the SSID and have the option to disable SSID broadcast as well, for added security.
The wireless connection is fast enough to allow you to smoothly stream music or video to your device and it can handle streaming to several devices at once.
Verdict
You can pick up the Travelair N for around £110 (about $160, AU$230). Given that you can easily pay £80 or £90 (about $130, AU$180) for a simple external 1TB drive the extra capabilities on offer here make it look like a bit of a bargain. You're getting a well-made unit that gives you wireless and NFC connectivity – plus it's battery powered so you can use it anywhere and the software for iOS and Android devices makes it easy to access.
Okay, so it's a bit bulkier than a standard drive but that's the price you pay for the extra connectivity. It does feel a little cheaply made in places – the flaps covering the ports and the moulding on the base – but these are minor niggles.
Overall, if you're looking for storage that you can use on the move and share between multiple devices, then the Travelair N is a good bet at this price level.
from TechRadar: Technology reviews http://ift.tt/1InccEs
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