Conclusions and Final Verdict

I want to love the Wi-Drive. It is easy to set up, it is easy to use, and the performance is as good as could be expected over a wireless connection. I like that you can share the device with up to three iOS devices at once, and I also like that it can be connected to a wireless network to act as a "network share" for the three devices so they could also use the Internet. What I would really like to see is that when it's connected to a wireless hotspot that it could also act as an SMB network share so regular computers could also access the drive. For the sake of productivity it would make it more compelling.

However, the price for the Kingston Wi-Drive is extremely compelling. The 16GB model (as tested) retails for $129.99 but can be had on sites like Amazon for less than $50 dollars. I do not believe it is worth it at full retail, but at that level of discount you are getting a lot of performance and technology for not a lot of money.

So why do I not love the Wi-Drive? The battery life is one factor. I could see something like this being popular on a family road trip, and only being able to use it for 4 hours before needing to recharge is definitely a bummer, considering many iOS devices will last much longer than that before needing juice.

Also, it does not seem to have a really strong business application. There is no real way to share documents on it between multiple computers (unless you use it just like a USB flash drive, and why spend $50 for a 16GB flash drive?), and while it could be used for sharing PDF files and spreadsheets most people at this point would be emailing it to other team members or sharing it on a Dropbox. Yes, this could be used for sharing business files, but the extra steps necessary to connect to it (not that there are many, mind you), are just steps that most people probably do not want to take.

But it's okay. The Wi-Drive does as advertised, and with a little shopping around it can be scored for significantly less than retail. It is not perfect, but for a first-generation style product, it does have a lot of potential and I am definitely excited to see what the future holds for these types of devices. I would definitely rate the Wi-Drive a solid 8 out of 10. Cloud computing is becoming popular, and will it make devices like this obsolete? We shall see.

fvrecomended

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chadkirchner's Avatar
chadkirchner replied the topic: #24499 05 Apr 2012 18:36

headerI remember, early last year, thinking to myself; "Self, it would be totally awesome if they made an external hard drive that was battery operated and could connect to a WiFi network. No more USB cables!" Well, that time has arrived with several new products that have recently hit the market. Today, I would like to take a look at the Kingston Wi-Drive 16GB unit and see how it works, and more importantly, is it worth the money.

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Arxon's Avatar
Arxon replied the topic: #24501 05 Apr 2012 20:47
Good read. Seems good for quick transfers of stuff.
chadkirchner's Avatar
chadkirchner replied the topic: #24571 10 Apr 2012 02:40
More capacity is what I would hope for. 16GB just seems low for the type of stuff you would use a drive like this for.

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