Review / Test: Nextav Wifi Drive Datashare NX-D100

With the evolution of technologies and modes of life, our use of computers decreases at the expense of the smartphones and tablets… The use of high-tech daily is more in addition to mobile: byebye our computers fixed, byebye our heavy computers laptops, welcome our smartphones and welcome our shelves! Unfortunately, our expensive smartphones and our expensive tablets are limited in terms of capacity, either battery or storage level! And to overcome these deficits, no miracle: external hard drives and backup batteries. Unfortunately, side external hard drive, you are still basically a good external hard drive with a usb cable for data transfer unless you are at the forefront of technology and that you have a disk wifi external hard! And so the big problem between an external hard drive and a smartphone, I mean, I should rather say, 2 big problems are: the usb cable and… the usb cable! Well Yes, the USB cable causes 2 problems with our smartphones: 1 is the non-mobilite, and the 2nd is the fact that an adapter is required to connect to your smartphone or tablet because the cable is USB type, while our smartphones and tablets are generally types micro-usb (there are adapters, but requires that your smartphone or Tablet OTG technology and we’re back to the 1st problem)! And it’s not the problem of energy consumption to operate hard disks! Here comes the Nextav Wifi Datashare Drive NX-D100 (which can be translated as “the sharer of wifi data”). The Nextav Wifi Drive NX-D100 is a Wifi adapter for SD card and USB storage device coupled to a router and a battery backup! As a result, you keep the mobility, you increase your storage capacity, more need adapter OTG, you have an external backup battery and you also have a wifi Repeater for your internet connection! All in a fairly compact object for all that it offers! And cheap!  

Features:

• Supports SD, SDHC and SDXC memory cards, as well as memory cards micro and miniSD via an adapter.
• Supports all USB 1.1, 2.0 and 3.0 storage devices
• Up to 5 devices can be connected simultaneously to Wifi for sharing files
• An SD card or a USB device data are accessible in Wifi for any Android device or iOS
• Micro-USB port for charging and data transfer
• Supports Hot-plug
• 3000mAh battery theoretical 7 h
• Able to connect to internet in wifi with standards 802 B/G/N
• Supports many file transfer applications, be it Windows, Mac, Linux, Android or iOS.
• Size: 118 x 79 x 14mm
• CPU: Ralink RT5350
• Frequency: MIPS24KEc 360 Mhz

  In short, many uses are possible with this product! The NX-D100 includes 4 leds:

• 1 for battery
• 1 for the activity (read/write)
• 1 for Wifi
• 1 for the internet

As well as a micro-USB port for charging and the exchange of data with a computer. a USB port to connect a USB key or an external hard drive, an SD card slot (micro SD and mini-SD accepted with adapter).

The test

This small device (relatively small in size, but big in its capabilities) is so complete that I struggle to know where to start… This drive wifi is entirely white plastic, screw, simple and classic design. A support of 2 seconds, and the unit turns on… The Wifi led flashes for about 20 sec and it is ready, you can and already connect 5 devices! And if the connection with your router is already configured, your internet connection is already active! There’s already a function that is excellent: using wifi drive as a media server (be it an SD card or an external hard drive that is plugged or even 2 at the same time), you can use it as a router for internet access! One does not preclude the other. I already have a quick summary so that you understand: with this box, you make an SD card as well as a key or external hard drive accessible in Wifi for up to 5 devices. But in addition to making your “wireless” storage devices, so accessible over wi – fi, you can simultaneously connect to internet without problem!   When I speak of up to 5 devices, more, is not simply conventional devices like a computer (with wifi receiver or laptop), a smartphone (Android or Apple) or a tablet… but any device with a wifi receiver and a web browser, as for example:

• some readers of ebooks
• some connected TV
• iPod Touch
• PlayStation 3
• PlayStation 4
• PSP
• PlayStation Vita Wifi
• Nintendo 3DS
• Nintendo 2DS
• Nintendo Wii
• Nintendo Wii U

No less! And yet, this list is not exhaustive. Not only are 5 different devices that can connect to it, but these are also different files that can be streamed/shared on each device! 5 different movies can theoretically be viewed on each device without cuts or slowdown. In any case, theoretically that’s what he is able to perform, I could not check, I couldn’t test that with 3 devices connected at the same time, for lack of material ^^ you have of course application dedicated to manage your wifi devices on your PC, smartphones and tablets, but they are actually just the programs/applications to facilitate life and management, because this NX-D100 Datashare is available at 10.10.10.254 (when you are logged on) with a web browser because it is also a NAS Server! And that’s what makes it compatible with many devices. Because by going to this address, you can simply manage all: users, device management, network (internet), services, system and you have even a wizard to configure everything easily!   Options and safety features are not set aside far away, it is certainly not too pushed on a router, the minimum is there, but I would say, more than the minimum: change of name (SSID), change the mode (b, g or n) change the channel, change the password, change the type of security and even the possibility to hide the SSID! Side show/reach of Wifi waves, I was pleasantly surprised! Put it next to my my ISP, a bbox2 router, Wifi Drive had the same signal strength! On the other hand, on the receive side it has detected that the terminals with 3-4 bars, but on this side, I don’t know if weaker signals are detected but hidden or if it does not really detect. Whatever it is, it must also be acknowledged that signals to 1 or 2 bars are rarely good speeds and a stable connection… In addition, you can also enable or disable the Samba service, which allows you to share files and printers between Windows and Unix platforms. Regarding storage devices to be inserted, you should know that the inserted SD cards don’t exceed not, if anything to say except that the encrypted drives are not supported, which is quite normal. By encrypted hard drive, I take for example my external hard drive 2 TB Western Digital My Passport, it contains basic protection that allows you to lock the disk hard if you do not have the correct password, or if you are not on the authorized PC => requires an application that says disk hard when connected “this is good “, person or authorized pc, sends the sauce!”, what Wifi Drive does not. To access the data, in any case for WD external hard drives that have encryption on the fly, you simply just remove this protection, and all your files will be accessible! Okay, admittedly, we lose the protection, but cannot have it all… and Furthermore, is a sharer file, so at this level, protection lies at the level of the wifi and it is present! Of course, there is the possibility to withdraw the Wifi Drive external hard drive then access data, but it assumes to know where it is, to know the Wifi Drive, and then disconnect the hard disk does not go unnoticed, especially if you are watching a movie… ;-) Clarification about streaming: playback of the files on a smartphone is well streaming, you can go to different time xx:xx of the film without worries. On the other hand, reading files which is made from the address 10.10.10.254 like on the PC must first be downloaded to your Pc. But this does not affect the audio files and the image files, the interface at 10.10.10.254 contains a photo viewer and an audio player, so for them, they can be visible-listenable directly in the interface and so in your browser. For those that would arise the question “Why is there no video player while there is a photo viewer and a music player?” It is simply because the attachment contains only a small processor (but which already hurt things) and movies require so many resources and codecs… Already that some PCs are already struggling to display a movie without concern, then a small device like the Wifi Drive, do not exaggerate ^^ further details: available at 10.10.10.254 interface also lets you do some operations as move, copy, delete, rename files or even create folders, etc… But after an operation, obliged to press the “Refresh” button to see the changes, the data refresh does not happen automatically. Oh, and don’t forget that it can also be used as external battery backup! Besides, regarding autonomy:

• Test 1: Passage of the battery from 100% to 30% in 1 h 35, 699 MB movie on SD card, then connect external HDD, and listening to music for about 2 hours => about 3 h 30 for 70%, so extrapolating, we reach the 5 h.
• Test 2: the Nextav went from 100% to 30% of autonomy in a little more than 2 h, with a film of 1 h 57 from a micro-sd card with adapter, read streaming on my smartphone with breaks here, there, external hard drive plugged in but not used. Also at the same time connected to my router. Moving the film’s 683 MB SD card to the external hard drive. By extrapolation, it reached almost 3 h.

In short, the theoretical autonomy was 7 h… Extrapolating the 1 test, I reach the 5 h, which is not bad at all and comparing with the 2 test, we note very quickly a decrease in independence when connecting the external hard drive… and this is quite normal because it is self powered. Which gives us in the end at least a certain level of autonomy: you what watch a movie for more than 2 h, almost 3! ^^ Autonomy is dependent on the use of each as well as files, specific examples seemed most telling. Of course, he made so many possible situations I don’t have them all! ;-) The Nextav Wifi Datashare NX-D100, firmware 2.000.006, has been tested with a microSDHC class 4 4 GB card, an external hard drive, Western Digital My Passport of self-powered 2 TB, a Samsung Galaxy S3 (Android 4.4), an HTC Evo 3D (Android 2.3) and a HP G62 laptop. Bonus: I also ran a test beyond its capabilities defined in order to see how far he could go: is it able to detect a USB hub comprising several USB key? Well, the answer is… Yes… and no…! I used a self-powered USB Hub and the result was rather random: it is technically quite able to detect that there are several key USB connected (up to 2 apparently the 3rd never passed), but it gives the files as of 1 era that there was connected, so as if the 2 USB keys were identical. Sometimes the insertion of the 2nd key gave nothing. Sometimes, the 2 keys gave no results. Sometimes, a key previously recognized, was more despite being alone in the hub, but I noticed that it was a specific USB to larger storage: 16 gigas… (the other 2 being 4 and 1 giga)

Conclusion

In my eyes this NX-D100 Nextav Wifi Drive is simply a marvel, a jewel of technology! He wouldn’t miss him more than an Ethernet port, and I have just replaced my router by it! I would have won in place and feature! And if you want to buy a new external hard drive, I recommend not, at present, to buy those which are Wireless (Wifi), to the right is simply because they are expensive and have fewer functions than the NX-D100! You will be much more earning by buying an external hard drive classic with cable USB (3.0 preferably) + Wifi Drive to make it accessible in Wifi, and whether at the level of price, features and compatibility with other devices! Just 2 small flaws that I can blame him, it’s:

1. The battery level indicator: the led will change color when the battery reaches 30%, that is, but I think that it is insufficient. An exact meter would have been the top, not necessarily at the level of the device, but especially at the level of the applications/programs. The device is so complete and as it can be used as external battery, an accurate indicator of remaining battery level would help in some cases to know what it is possible to do and for what duration.
2. Unable to disconnect from the internet with one click without having to go into the options (and we think not necessarily) and without disconnect from the storage device.

  Product link: http://www.nextav.ca/nxd100-wifi-datashare.html