Seagate GoFlex Satellite review: Seagate GoFlex Satellite

Seagate's GoFlex family of portable external hard drives has been by far the most flexible on the market, thanks to the exchangeable port adapter design. Today, however, the company proved that it could get even better, with the introduction of the GoFlex Satellite.

8.1

Seagate GoFlex Satellite

The Good

Seagate's good-looking and compact GoFlex Satellite is a new breed of external hard drives that can stream digital content stored on it via a built-in Wi-Fi network. As an external hard drive, the device features USB 3.0, is relatively fast, compact, flexible, and offers uncompromising support for both Macs and PCs.

The Bad

The GoFlex Satellite supports only three wireless clients at a time, doesn't allow for Internet access, and its USB 3.0 performance could be better. The drive's included GoFlex Media iPad app takes a long time to load photos and doesn't work in the background.

The Bottom Line

Despite a few minor shortcomings, the GoFlex Satellite makes an excellent direct-attach external storage solution for anyone and a must-have for those who frequently travel with Apple's iPad.

The new device is basically a portable external hard drive, almost exactly the same as the GoFlex Pro or the GoFlex Ultra-portable. On top of that it has a built-in battery and a Wi-Fi access point that broadcasts digital content stored on it. With the proliferation of tablets and mobile devices, this added feature makes the GoFlex Satellite an instant must-have, especially for owners of the storage-constraint iPad, as long as they don't use more than three of them at the same time.

As an external hard drive, the $200 GoFlex Satellite features USB 3.0 and offered fast performance in our tests. Supporting both PCs and Macs out of the box, the drive makes a good external hard drive for any user. If you have an iPad and want to carry a large digital content library on the go, the GoFlex Satellite--with an included car charger--also makes an excellent storage extender for your tablet.