Performance

How well does it work? The obvious question comes with a relatively obvious answer; it works well. For documents and smaller files, they open very quickly on my iPhone without any noticeable delay.

Using Handbrake, I transcoded a 1080p episode of Top Gear to the preset iPhone 4 setting. 30 minutes later I copied the file to the Kingston Wi-Drive, and connected the iPhone. It streams beautifully. There is a small delay when first starting the file, which can be attributed to buffering, and there is a small buffering delay if you seek forwards or backwards in the file, but the file definitely plays without any noticeable hiccups.

IMG 0108

I do not (unfortunately) have access to 3 iOS devices readily, but I do have access to two. I connected both my iPhone and a second-generation iPad to the Wi-Drive, and then loaded the exact same television episode. Again, it worked flawlessly, with the same delay time for buffering but nothing that was too unexpected.

IMG 0109

Obviously, the exceptional performance of the device is due in part to the solid-state nature of the storage drive. Unlike the Western Digital drive that I will be reviewing shortly that uses a spinning mobile drive, the Kingston has no moving parts and can access data quickly.

If we are going to pick nits, I would like to complain that the transfer to the Wi-Drive is USB 2.0 only. USB 3.0 is still not "readily available" in my opinion, so I am not surprised that it is not included, but it would make transferring files and filling up the Wi-Drive last minute before a trip even better.

There is a nice feature though included in the software. From the iOS/Android/Kindle device, files can be copied to the Wi-Drive from the iOS/Android/Kindle device, and vice-versa, which would make sharing files a boon with this. Also, files can be deleted via the software from the device on the Wi-Drive. It is nice to see that extra data management ability, considering the small storage capacity of the device.

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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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