A little while back, I was asked to test out this new portable hard drive we would be carrying made by Seagate called the Wireless Plus. At first, I was giddy like a schoolgirl to have an extra 1TB of storage space to move my media around. I then had to throw on my professional cap and get down to business.
After getting it home, I started the unboxing process. The packaging was like any other, made of cardboard and sturdy enough to reassure me the drive hadn’t been bouncing around in transit. The drive’s outer shell, on the other hand, was made of plastic, which personally I always dislike. Sure it helps keep costs down and is probably better for the wireless signal, but it is far more flimsy than something made of metal.
In the box, you will find a 1TB wireless hard drive, a USB 3.0 cable, a USB to DC power cable, a USB wall adapter and a quick start guide. Something I had fun admiring was this plate that let you replace the USB port once you had the drive set up to be a standalone wireless drive. So, I started playing around with the buttons and ports before reading any instructions (the typical thing guys do, I think…).
After I had my fill of playing, I opened up the instructions and followed them “to a T.” The initial setup (where I connected the drive to my iPhone) was simple and straightforward, but when it came to wirelessly connecting the drive to my Mac, the directions were slightly more vague. This was disappointing, since my Mac was the device I wanted the drive to talk with in the first place. The directions said to install some software on the Mac, but didn’t tell you where the software was located. No discs were included with the drive, so I presumed that the software would be on the hard drive. I was right, but it would have been nice if that was explicitly mentioned in the guide.
Disclaimer: It is not mentioned in the quick start guide, but the complete user guide available here tells you not to use the Wireless Plus drive for backup with Time Machine when you plug it in for the first time. Your Mac will attempt to reformat the drive and erase the software you are tying to install.
Once I had the device up and running on my wireless network, everything seemed to work seamlessly. My preferred method of use for this device was just as an external hard drive to store more of my media on — but the Wireless Plus has more going for it then just that! You can view and play your media from the Seagate Media app. The only drawback is that there are some limitations on the types of files that the app can play. The list they give seems a bit light, but it’s what I found within the user guide, so I say try it with any type of media and see what works for you.
Here is a break down of some supported file types:
- Video: H.246 video, MPEG-4, Motion-JPEG
- Audio: AAC, MP3, M4a Audible (formats 2, 3, 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, WAV
- Documents: Microsoft Office, iWork, Adobe Acrobat (PDF)
Since we are talking details, I should mention the product specifications for the Wireless Plus.
Supported Devices
- iPad, iPhone, iPod touch running iOS 4 and above
- Android-based tablets and smartphones running Android release 2.1 and above
- Other Wi-Fi enabled tablets and smartphones (ed. note — could they be any more vague?)
- Mac computer running Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later operating systems
- Windows computer running Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista or Windows XP
Supported Web Browsers
- Safari 5 of later
- WebKit
- Internet Explorer 8 of later
- Firefox
- Google Chrome
Hardware Specifications
- Capacity: 1TB
- SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port (the machine you are connected to will also need USB 3.0 to achieve the highest transfer speeds) or USB 2.0 port
- Battery: Non-user replaceable lithium-ion battery
- Battery Life: Up to 10 hours of continuous streaming (1 user); up to 25 hours of standby
- Maximum Wi-Fi range: 45 meters (147 feet)
- Drive Format: NTFS (the included software will help with making this drive a Mac format)
With all that techie jargon out of the way, I have to tell you about my second moment of frustration. All of a sudden, the drive died one day. It had no blinking lights, wasn’t spinning up, nor mounting on my desktop. This really threw me for a loop since I had the device plugged in via the USB cable, so it should have been receiving power. I plugged in the included DC power adapter and that solved the problem. It seems as though the drive will not charge via USB like some other portable hard drives do. This isn’t a drawback by any means since you typically won’t have the drive plugged in via USB like I did, but it certainly was a moment of shock.
Overall, I am very happy with the Seagate Wireless Plus. I don’t use all the extra bells and whistles that the drive is capable of, but as a wireless external storage unit, it is exactly what I would expect. When the weather gets nicer, I plan on testing the wireless capabilities by attempting to have my PS3 read movie files off it for my mini home-drive-in movie nights.
You can find the Seagate Wireless Plus on our website here. If you are in the market for a wireless portable hard drive, I recommend considering this one.