Mobile WLAN hard drives are the perfect complement for smartphones, tablets and also many ultrabooks. Because all these devices are wonderfully light and mobile, they offer only a very limited space, for example for movies or for high-resolution images.
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For smartphones and the iPad, you can not just plug an external hard drive via USB, and on other tablets or ultrabooks, it's not necessarily handy on the train or on the plane.
The hard disk as a hotspot
WLAN hard disks, on the other hand, can easily be left in the pocket, you can access the data by radio. The hard disks themselves are independent of the power supply with their built-in lithium-ion batteries. Depending on the model, a battery charge is sufficient for four to eight hours, and in any case is long enough for two feature films.
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With the ADATA Dash Drive Air AE800 with 500 GB capacity, the 5200 mAh battery in the hard drive can even be used to charge smartphones or tablets on the go.
WLAN hard disks with HDD and SSD
Compared to mobile devices, the WLAN hard disks appear as a hotspot, independent of other wireless networks. Multiple smartphones, tablets or notebooks can simultaneously access a WLAN hard disk, depending on the model, up to eight devices.
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In order to be able to access the hard drive wirelessly with a mobile device and still have access to the Internet or a LAN, all WLAN disks offer a pass-through or WLAN bridge mode, which is displayed in the browser or an app via the settings of the disk Configured. In addition, WLAN hard disks also offer a USB port, usually even USB 3.0, so they can be filled with data quickly from the PC or notebook.
Despite the support of the 802.11n standard, data rates of up to six Mbytes / s are possible in practice via WLAN. Therefore, liquid video streaming is not possible with HD material. Data can be transmitted with more than 100 MByte / s using the USB 3.0 port.
Most Wi-Fi disks have a 2.5-inch HDD installed, depending on the model with capacities between 320 GB and one TByte. These hard drives are also used in notebooks and are therefore better protected against impact than conventional 3.5-inch desktop HDDs, but you should treat them with care.
The SSD, such as the Kingston Wi-Drive or the Transcend StoreJet Cloud, is not immune to interference, but its capacity is 32 to 128 GB lower. The performance does not benefit from the SSDs, as both devices only have USB 2.0.
For Windows computers, a wireless hard drive appears as a network device with a shared drive when accessed through the wireless connection in File Manager. A device webpage is displayed on the device for the settings.
For mobile devices with Android or iOS, you need to download the appropriate app from the respective manufacturer of the WLAN hard disk in Google Play or the Apple App Store and install it on the mobile device. These apps allow you to access the disk to upload or download data, or to configure the device.
The apps are more than just file managers, they also contain image viewers and also media players. For some WLAN hard disks, such as the Seagate Wireless Plus, the stored data can also be accessed via the web browser. The apps are also used to configure encryption for the hard disks, in which case the safest available encryption method should be selected and combined with a secure password.
Apps for Android and iOS
Some hard drives already come with encryption enabled. If you use a WLAN hard disk on the notebook, the encryption is configured via the web browser. The Buffalo MiniStation Air can also securely connect at the push of a button.
The WLAN hard drives Corsair Voyager Air, Fantec MWiD25 and Intenso Memory 2 Move can even act as a simple NAS with their LAN connections even in the network. The Corsair board even has a GBit Ethernet port, while Fantec and Intenso have to be content with 100 MBit.
WLAN HDD as Mini-NAS
Sophisticated features such as user administration or additional servers are missing. The devices provide only one public share that all users can access on the LAN.
WLAN hard drives are a great thing for owners of smartphones, tablets and ultrabooks with small SSDs, because you can access large amounts of data without the Internet connection and the cloud.
But excels in the data transfer via WLAN weakens the devices, here it can jerky when streaming HD movies. The manufacturers have to improve. However, the fast WiGig disks will not be released until the middle of next year.
Conclusion: Great idea, but could be improved
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