Western Digital My Passport Wireless Pro review
THE WIRELESS HARD DRIVE THAT CAN DO A WHOLE LOT MORE THAN JUST BACKUPS.
IF YOU JUST need an external hard drive to dump les onto or serve as a bit of extra storage, the My Passport Pro is not the device for you. In fact, calling this little square box a ‘wireless hard drive’ is underselling it substantially — this is more like a portable network-attached storage device on steroids.
Like its non-Pro predecessor, this new device is largely geared towards content creators like photographers and videographers, and many of its features are aimed squarely at making it easy to back up and share that kind of content. ere’s a built-in 6,400mAh battery so it can operate free of mains power for up to 10 hours, and the Wi-Fi is 802.11ac so transferring large les is relatively speedy (up to 433Mbps). Select devices can send images and video straight to the Pro via Wi-Fi; that includes Android and iOS phones and Wi-Fi-equipped cameras that support writing directly to FTP (that includes lots of Nikons, but sadly not many Canons).
And for devices that can’t use the wireless, the built-in SD Card reader and a USB host port can be used alonside a one-touch backup button to quickly copy the contents of plugged-in cards to the Wireless Pro’s main storage, without the need for a PC to mediate between the two. at USB host port is particularly handy as it means that, with the correct cable or adapter, you can plug in just about any other type of storage device or even a camera directly. And what’s more, you can even charge devices o that USB port, so if your smartphone’s running a little low, you can top it up from the Wireless Pro while you’re on the go.
Sharing is really where the Wireless Pro kicks things up a notch from its non-Pro counterpart, though, and a big part of that is the built-in Plex Media Server. We’ve covered Plex more than a few times in TechLife previously, but its basically a way to share your own ripped movies and TV shows with a nice slick Net ix-like interface. Load up the Wireless Pro with your video les and Plex will fetch full descriptions, cast lists and ashy artwork to go with them. en you can play those les back on your iOS or Android smartphones or tablets using the associated Plex mobile apps — it can even transcode les and stream to multiple devices at the same time.
e Wireless Pro can serve as a wireless hotspot and even piggy-back on another devices’ internet connection — like your smartphone’s — meaning you can connect a few devices to the Wireless Pro to access its contents and still have internet access. And the Pro’s internal drive is formatted as exFAT by default, so if you do need to plug it into a Windows or Mac machine, it’ll be accessible on both.
And all these features are generally well-implemented and easy to use — for the most part, once you’ve got the drive set up and connecting, it just hums away discretely and you don’t even have to think about it.
e main caveat is that this new drive is considerably bigger than its forebear — including the USB cable, it’s only a little shy of half a kilo. At $389 for the 2TB model and $449 for the 3TB, this isn’t exactly a cheap storage device either, so you’ll need to really make use of those extra features to get value out of it. (For comparison, a standard 3TB USB drive is around $200.) is is an absolutely stonkin’ bit of travel tech, so if the features appeal it’s an easy recommendation.