REVIEW: Kingston Wi-DrivePlus MobileLite

Review: Kingston Wi-DrivePlus MobileLite

By: Christopher “Synther” Wilson

Believe it or not, I’m a little newer to the scene of using my cell phone for literally everything.  My fiancée seems to use her phone as much, or more, than her computer but I never really adopted that stance.  It’s simply easier for me to do things on my computer, with a full keyboard and mouse, than it is on my phone.  Not to mention that the screen is bigger.  It was only two years ago that I finally got an Android smartphone and I still do not own a tablet, though I am interested in getting one.  Even so, I find that some of the apps for the smartphone/tablet are rather kloogy.  I recently uninstalled the Facebook app, for instance, because recent updates made it practically unusable for me.  It’s simply faster to open the Dolphin web browser and go to the mobile Facebook website.  Not to mention that I get more functionality from the website.  Developers keep wanting to cram down my throat how the future of gaming will be in the mobile market.  Well, I really hope that this isn’t the case because with the exception of one or two games, I’m completely unimpressed with the literally thousands of games that are out there.  Sorry, but I’m a bit above playing the little Facebook-like games and if you’re going to make a claim like “the future of gaming is in the mobile market,” you’re going to have to do better than Candy Crush Saga.

That’s not to say that these aren’t fun games.  But I don’t see remakes of Tetris being the future of gaming.  Still, I see the smartphone/tablet being used frequently in other areas of life.  Who the hell buys film for a camera anymore?  And WHY would Joe Average go out and buy a dedicated digital camera when Joe’s smartphone/tablet already has a better quality camera/camcorder built into it?  Why would Joe Average buy an MP3 player when they already have one in their phone that also has access to a multitude of free apps for internet radio or Google Music?  These are all valid questions and honestly, I don’t see any of these devices really being around anymore in five to ten years.  You can’t go out and buy a Sony Walkman tape deck anymore, either.  Such is life.

The flip side of all these pictures, videos, and songs is that they take up space.  One of the first things I did was replace the measly little 2GB micro-SD card that came with my phone and slapped in a 32GB micro-SD.  I still have some space left, but it fills up a lot faster than you might think.  I listen to a lot of Led Zeppelin and Information Society.  To combat this issue, Kingston Technology has come up with a number of cost effective external storage devices that can connect to your smartphone/tablet wirelessly.  Most of these consisted of some form of hard drive or SSD, though I haven’t really researched the other models that much.  A few months back, I won a Facebook contest (that I connected to using my PC) to win a beta sample of the Kingston Wi-DrivePlus MobileLite.

It should be noted that it is unsure at this time if that will be the final name of the released product.  But that’s what it says on the box.  I have to tell you, I’m rather in love with this little silver box.  Unfortunately, the first Wi-DrivePlus MobileLite that they had sent me worked all of about three times and then failed to activate the wireless antennae.  I sat on it for a few days, trying a number of different methods, to get it to work.  I finally settled on e-mailing Kingston and told them that I completely understood that this was a beta sample and I didn’t really expect any kind of warranty or anything, but that I would appreciate any insight into how to resolve it.  Perhaps I was doing something wrong.  To my surprise, Kingston got back to me right away and let me know that they were sending me a replacement unit.  That’s amazing customer service for something that was a beta sample product!  My hat’s off to you, Kingston Technology!

The MobileLite is capable of a couple of things and is basically your smartphone Swiss Army Knife.  First and foremost, the device is a wireless card reader and supports a single micro-SD and a single SD card (or micro-SD card in an adapter).  I had a couple of 4GB micro-SD cards lying around and more than a few adapters, so my current MobileLite is up to 8GB of space on the SD card side.  On the opposite side is a micro-USB port for charging the device, as well as connecting it as a card reader to your computer, and a full size USB port.  The full sized port will allow you to read USB thumb drives as well as allowing you to plug in a full sized external hard drive!  While using a full sized hard drive might be a bit of overkill, it is great to have that option.

Pressing the power button on the Wi-DrivePlus MobileLite and holding the button down for three seconds will power the device on.  This powers on the unit and activates the wireless antennae.  The MobileLite operates as a wireless AP unit, so you’ll need to use the wireless settings on your phone to connect to it.  Using the Android Wi-Drive app, I was then able to configure the MobileLite to connect to my wireless router, thus giving me full access to the internet as well as being able to access or store files to the Wi-DrivePlus MobileLite.  The unit will allow up to three separate devices to connect to it at once.  In a meeting and need to share some files?  No problem.  Let those clients connect with their smartphone or tablets and share away.  It should be noted that the Android Wi-Drive app is still considered a beta and that a “full” version of the app is available for iOS.  However, I’ve seen both and aside from the fugly Apple UI, I really can see no difference in functionality.  You can also use the device, and charge it, by plugging the mini-USB into your PC where it will perform as a standard card reader.  I was happy to see that the USB on the device is pass-through so you can use devices that require USB power as well.

And what is the spork in this Swiss Army Knife?  The Wi-DrivePlus MobileLite also functions as a portable charging station for your phone!  Plugging your phone into the standard USB port and pressing the power button once will cause the power light on the MobileLite to flash.  Your smartphone’s screen should then turn on and you will see that your battery is charging.  Testing this on my HTC Wildfire-S I was able to bring the battery almost to a full charge.  This can be a very handy function for anyone out and about that finds they need to charge their phone on the go.

I’ve been a fan of Kingston Technology for a long time for their memory products, such as HyperX RAM and SD memory cards.  It seems that they’ll hit another home run with the Wi-DrivePlus MobileLite (or whatever they decide to call it) when it officially comes out.  If you’re looking for excellent memory solutions from a reputable company with excellent customer service, you don’t need to look any further than Kingston Technology.