Kingston Wi-Drive review: Limited capacity, but compact and easy to use

Editor's note: This reviewed was updated on May 16, 2013 to reflect the newer model with higher storage capacity.

7.0

Kingston Wi-Drive

The Good

The supercompact <b>Kingston Wi-Drive</b> provides extra storage space for mobile devices and is capable of relaying Internet access from an existing Wi-Fi network to its connected clients.

The Bad

The Kingston Wi-Drive offers a limited amount of storage space, doesn't support USB 3.0, and is slow as an external drive. The device also has a short battery life and supports only three concurrent clients.

The Bottom Line

Compact, Internet-ready, and well-designed, the Wi-Drive makes a convenient companion for frequent travelers who have from one to three tablets and a moderate library of digital content.

With up to 128GB of storage space and dimensions about the size of the iPhone 3G, the Kingston Wi-Drive is very much the mini version of Seagate's Wireless Plus, both in terms of physical size and capacity. Essentially, it's a USB portable drive that has a built-in Wireless-N access point and can stream its stored content to up to three wireless clients, be they tablets, such as an iPad, or notebooks. The best feature of the Wi-Drive is the fact that it can also connect to another Wi-Fi network to allow its connected clients to access the Internet.

While the drive worked well in my testing, its limited amount of storage space makes it hard to call it an ideal companion for tablets. At the current street price of $150 for 128GB (or $65 and $90 for the 32GB and 64GB capacities, respectively), the Wi-Drive, is also relatively expensive compared with other hard drive-based devices of the same type.

As an external hard drive, the Wi-Drive supports both PCs and Macs out of the box, but its performance is about the same as that of a thumb drive. If you're a frequent traveler with an iPad and favor the compact design and functionality over capacity, the Wi-Drive will make a good investment. Otherwise, check out the alternatives on this list.

Design and features