Seagate Wireless Mobile Storage 500GB Portable Hard Drive Review
Final Thoughts and Conclusions
When Seagate announced the Wireless mobile storage unit at CES, I have to admit it intrigued me. There are a number of ways to stream data to a mobile device; cloud based, local storage and external storage options. When traveling, sometimes it’s hard to choose what data to take along for a long trip, and then to move that data to the various devices when needed. Seagate has made the Wireless drive easy to connect to, and with the Seagate Mobile App, anybody with a basic knowledge of using a smartphone, tablet or laptop shouldn’t have any issues tracking down the data on the drive.
In using the Seagate Wireless for a couple of weeks, I did not experience any issues with streaming data to multiple devices or with connectivity. Changing certain settings in the software does require the wireless connection to be reset, however that is to be expected. Connecting to the Seagate Wireless can take a minute to complete when you first turn on the drive, it takes about 30 seconds for the drive to establish the WiFi hotspot (connecting it as a WiFi reapeater makes this take a little longer), and then another 15 seconds for the wireless device to connect. After that, streaming 1080p video was flawless across three devices.
Seagate is currently offering the 500GB Wireless drive in five colors, Black, White, Blue, Green, and Red. All of which can easily be found online for $99.99 plus shipping. As it is designed to be used on the go, Seagate also provides a 2 year warranty.
| Seagate Wireless Drive Options | |
| Wireless 500GB | $99.99 |
| Wireless Plus 500GB | $134.99 |
| Wireless Plus 1TB | $159.99 |
| Wireless Plus 2TB | $189.99 |
If I was to make any changes to the Seagate Wireless drive, it would be to change the high-speed USB 2.0 port to a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port. In addition, perhaps changing the internal drive from a standard 5400RPM to flash storage would help the battery last a bit longer and further improve reliability and performance.
Legit Bottom Line: If you frequently need to have a good amount of data available to share across multiple devices, the Seagate Wireless drive is a great device to take on the road. It is small enough to leave in a bag, and with a range of close to 30 feet, connecting and streaming your data shouldn’t be an issue.