WD’s range of Passport external hard drives have always been well received in the mass market all thanks to its reliability and sleek design. Now, meet the bulkier version of its Passport drive – the WD My Passport Wireless, a WiFi enabled hard drive that comes with up to 2TB of storage and a SD card reader that automatically imports files and photos, we have been using the device for a couple of months to conclude this review.
In recent times, computing has gotten more lightweight than ever and so does the storage that comes in most devices, flash storages are no doubt the fastest devices however it cost a fortune to own a high capacity one. The WD Passport Wireless isn’t as light as a external 2.5-inch portable hard drive and there are reasons to it. First, there is a logic board that powers the WiFi chip and SD card reader, then a huge built-in non removable battery that offers up to 6 hours of usage, so be prepared to add some weight into your bag for these extra features.
The value of owning such hard drives isn’t just expanding the storage of your computing devices with ease, but also to be able to access content on the go without tangling wires, and this is where the My Passport Wireless comes in really handy. Similar to WD’s My Cloud hard drive, you are first required to download the WD My Cloud app from Google Play or Apple App Store to get started with the My Passport Wireless, setting the device with the app is effortless and you will be up in no time.
WD has made the hard drive’s configuration fairly simple for users to understand, you are only required to configure an administrator password for accessing the entire hard drive and a guest account is automatically available upon login if you do not want sharing users to access your private files.
The My Passport Wireless offers two wireless modes – Access Point and Bridged, which is configurable via the WD My Cloud app that lets you set up a standalone access point with up to 8 users and connects to your local WiFi network should you require to go online at the same time on your device while sharing files across with other users in the network. On a side note, the hard drive’s configuration can be accessed with your web browser if you aren’t the step-by-step type of user.
For the past few months, the wireless hard drive had been my travelling companion on both international and local field work, I filled up the available storage with my favorite HD movies, imported photos from my camera, and at times, it serves as my Android smartphone’s external storage for storing camera shots. Streaming HD movies from the hard drive is flawless on mobile devices with the supported playback app and codec, however data transmission speeds just isn’t too impressive over a USB 3.0 connectivity, a quick check on AIDA64 reveals a 5200RPM hard drive in the My Passport Wireless, which could be a disappointment to some since this isn’t an affordable product and WD may have just emphasized power efficiency over performance. On the bright side, the hard drive’s battery lasted for 4:50 hours in a single charge with two devices connected.
Overall, the WD My Passport Wireless is a decent product nonetheless, despite of its uninspiring and bulky design, this product delivers usability that road warriors will truly appreciate, be it a storage for your collection of HD movie content or your important working documents, this product delivers convenience for easy accessibility without the need of carrying cables around. The WD My Passport Wireless is available in 1TB and 2TB sizes, which retails at RM699 and RM899 respectively.
The Good
+ Great battery life
+ Easy to use configuration
+ Wireless convenience
+ Easy to use software
+ Built-in SD card reader
The Not so Good
– Bulky
– Slow hard drive for USB 3.0 transfers
– iOS companion app needs improvement
