External drives are great companion for those people who like to live in storage space restriction. With wide storage, this portable drives come with wireless support that manages fast data transfer speed. There is no need to wait back and look for a pc for accessing your files. WD's portable wireless is a unique backup solution with many features. WD My Passport Wireless is a next generation wireless storage device that offers you small form factor with up to 2 Terabytes of huge storage space. Western Digital adds 2 years warranty in the package. The cost of 1TB model is around Rs.13000.00. 500GB model comes for Rs.11000. It is a new product, where old features are complied on upgraded hardware with new additions. We will be testing the 1TB version of WD My Passport Wireless Portable hard drive. 1TB model is more than enough to carry your entire pc data in your pocket. You don’t have to compress your HD videos or games or applications. Wi-Fi enabled technology allows you to have your personal hotspot for video streaming. It becomes a standalone device that does not depend on anything. It is just a powerful pack of entertainment and reliable backup solution. We had tested WD Wireless devices before also; you can find them under our review section.
Compared to them WD My Passport Wireless 1TB is more compact. It looks like a new age design. WD has added a Full SD Card Slot. It is typically used on cameras. You can just pull out the card, insert that in WD My Passport Wireless 1TB and stream the content on your tablet or Smartphone through wifi. It is very convenient. You can also backup your data on cloud through the drive. WD My Passport Wireless 1TB drive can be a very helpful product in different cases. It can give you ideal backup options where 2 year warranty adds relief for long usage. It can be linked with cloud storage. So that your data remains safer on multiple location, and at a time you can connect around 5 devices to stream videos, images and data through it. With common wifi standards, the drive can be easily used with mobile and pc platform both.
Features:
- Full SD Card Slot
- Connect up to 5 Devices on portable Wi-Fi network
- 6 Hour of Battery usage with 20 hours of standby time
- Backup data on WDCloud
- DLNA/UPnP devices compatible
- Share internet connection through creating Wi-Fi Hub
- Secure drive with Drive lock
- Diagnose drive, update firmware through WD MyCloud
- USB 3.0 for ultra fast data transfer
Specification:
- Data transfer rate on USB 3.0 up to 5 Gb/s
- Data transfer rate on SD 2.0 up to 25MB/s
- 2×2 Wireless-N
- Operating temperature: 0°C to 35°C
- Non-op. temperature: –20°C to 60°C
- Dimension 1TB – 5.0 in (127.0 mm)x 3.39 in (86.0 mm) x 0.96 in (24.4 mm)
- Weight: .60 lb (0.27 kg)
- Connectivity – Wireless-N with MIMO, SD card slot & USB 3.0
Package:
Design:
WD My Passport Wireless 1TB has a compact size. It is small enough to fit on your hand or in a pocket. But it is thick due to 1TB storage. There might be 2 drives in it. It has a classy look. It has a curved rectangular shape design with no sharp edges. It has black and gray color making it a decent looking device. It is essential that you must take care while using it. Water contact or shock can damage the drive. The body is mostly made from plastic element which is not shockproof or waterproof.
Front:
At the front there are two lights. Among which first one is a power light plus a battery indicator. This light changes color when the battery drains out. Blue means 100% charge, Green means 75%, Orange means 50% and Red means 15%. The power light remains white on start or when I press the power button. The drive takes a few second to start or switch off. Below that lies a wifi led. If the light is solid blue then it means it is active and if the same turns to orange then it means there is no Access Point or a shared internet connection. Red light means failed to connect. And white means firmware update. The front part mostly consist a black panel that holds the power lights and My Passport logo on the top left side.
Left/Right:
Full SD Memory card slot is placed on the left. You have to get a Memory card adapter if you want to use a MicroSD card on it. It is a convenient solution. This card slot helps you to instantly share your photos, videos with others. You can upload them on cloud or stream the content on portable devices. For photographers who carry DSLR and other type of cameras that has a SD Card as the default storage option. If the space is used up you can empty that by moving your files to the WD My Passport wireless quite easily. 1TB space will never get short. Same can act as a reasonable backup option. It is a thick drive. I do not think it will be comfortable to carry it in pocket. Keeping it in back-pack will be easier.
Top:
There are two buttons on the top side. One is power and other one is Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi does not turns on instantly when you turn on the drive. A separate wifi button is provided. Instead of conventional MicroUSB port, WD My Passport is having a USB 3.0 port. That allows you to charge it fast in less time. It is capable of offering you around 6 hours of battery life and 20 hours of standby time. The drive features Wi-Fi with MIMO technology. MIMO stands for multiple input, multiple output. Due to this technology you can use around 8 devices on this portable hard drive. MIMO also boosts the bandwidth and keeps connectivity stable.
Backside:
The backside as usual has some information related to the model and serial number. This will help you at the time of repairs.
WD My Passport Wireless 1TB is having a decent look. It is not heavy also. But due to thick enclosure you cannot carry this in your pocket. Especially in jeans. It won't fit easily. But if you have a bag then you can turn on the wifi and sync your files while moving also. It is a helpful travel companion and very useful product.
UI:
Drive configuration is easy. You can modify the settings through your mobile phone or through your pc. You have to connect your device to WD Wifi for accessing the drive settings. Then by typing mypassport.local or 192.168.60.1 you can see the main configuration page. The UI offers you information on the battery life and the type of data stored. Likewise it automatically sorts the data into video, images or music format. And you get the total amount of space free also through a simple diagram on the main screen. Also it offers you various options to configure the site. Like you can connect the drive to your router and so other devices can access internet through it. It can act as a wireless hub also.
Performance:
WD My Passport Wireless 1TB works amazing on USB 3.0 interface. 3GB of data merely takes a minute to copy. But on USB 2.0 the speed gets a bit limited. You can see the test reports below. The speed fluctuates. On USB 3.0 I had got more than 90 Mb/s but it somehow got stuck at 50 to 60Mb/s depending on the system usage. For example if you are watching a movie or playing game while copying a file the speed will be lower. After using this for few hours constantly, I found this drive very helpful for data backup. It comes with integrated wifi support. You can connect the drive with internet and then sync your files on the web. At one side the files remains in the drive and on the other it is synced with other cloud storage. You can configure the same through WD MyCloud app which is available for Android, iOS and Windows Phone. Most of the settings are easy to understand. Sometime while streaming content on different devices the connectivity drops. I tested around 3 devices streaming a HD content on the same time. It buffers in between. Also this drive is not having a very long range.
Test Machine: AMD Benchmarking Machine: (Thanks to Antec, AMD, Kingston, Gigabyte, Nvidia & Seagate for sponsoring the hardware)
- CPU Cabinet – Antec GX700 Mid-Tower
- Processor – AMD FX-8350 4Ghz 8 Core (AM3+)
- Liquid Cooler – Antec Kuhler H20 920
- RAM – 1x 8GB Kingston HyperX Blu RAM
- Motherboard – Gigabyte 990FXA-UD5 AM3+ Socket UltraDurable
- Graphic Card – NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST 2GB
- Hard Drive 1 – Seagate Barracuda 3TB Internal Hard Drive
- PSU – Antec EA-750 EarthWatts Green PSU
Test on USB 3.0 USB Ports –
Test on USB 2.0 USB Ports –
Battery:
As per its official specification it gives 5 hours plus battery as it promises. I do not agree on that. The battery life is bit lower. It is around 4 hours on maximum usage. I had connected around 4 devices with 2 more pc streaming HD videos from the drive. More devices mean more battery consumption. In similar manner if you use around one or two devices then it works well for 5 hours or higher. The charging time is good. Due to usb 3.0 port the device charges really fast.
Conclusion:
WD My Passport Wireless 1TB is a great device for outdoor usage. It is ideal for backup, wireless storage solution and handy device. 1TB space is quite enough for keeping all your videos in HD format. If you think this is low then a 2TB version is also available. The cost of 1TB version is around Rs.13000. To some point, there are cheaper non-wifi editions that are available in the market which makes WD My Passport Wireless 1TB a less competitive and costly product. But as per its feature point of view it is good. It has a Full SD card slot that can help you to instantly backup your files and use the card again. A few improvements it needs are on the battery part and on the application which sometime causes problem with multiple devices that are accessing the drive at the same point. This can be due to low RAM used for managing multiple connections.
Pros:
- High Speed USB 3.0 Hard Drive
- Full SD card slot
- Wifi and Cloud enabled
Cons:
- Average Battery Output
- Costly
- Does not charge through pc usb
