G-Technology G-Connect review: G-Technology G-Connect

If there were Razzie Awards for the worst storage devices, the G-Technology G-Connect would win in a few categories. Yet, it's not categorically a bad device for you to just write off; it's good enough for you to keep it and keep wishing it could do more.

5.1

G-Technology G-Connect

$186 at Walmart

$200 at Amazon

The Good

The <b>G-Technology G-Connect</b> works as a portable drive or a NAS server with a built-in wireless router that supports five iOS devices for media streaming via a mobile app.

The Bad

The G-Connect is confusing to use and is so far behind its competition in terms of features.

The Bottom Line

The G-Technology G-Connect is a try-hard portable/wireless storage device that doesn't achieve much in the end.

Whenfirst introduced last June, the G-Connect was intended to rival the Seagate GoFlex Satellite wireless storage extender for mobile devices. Now shipping a year later, the G-Connect has no improvement over its competitor, offering about half of what the Seagate does. For example, there's no battery, no support for USB 3.0, and it currently only has an iOS mobile app.

In all fairness, the G-Connect does well when all conditions required for it to be useful are met: when plugged into a network via a network cable and hooked to power via its power adapter. In this case, up to five clients, preferably iOS devices, can connect to its Wi-Fi network stream media in its 500GB of internal storage and surf the Internet at the same time. But mobile devices are not so mobile anymore when they have to be tied to a power socket.

That said, at around $180, the G-Connect makes a slow USB 2.0 portable drive, a lacking NAS server because of its limited storage, and an immobile portable wireless storage extender for the iPad. It might be a good fit for hotel hoppers, however, since it helps share the in-room Internet access.

If you're looking for a similar device that can do a lot more, check out the GoFlex Satellite, which costs about the same and offers USB 3.0, support for iOS and Android devices, and, most importantly, includes a battery that offers up to 9 hours of usage.