Sony Portable Wireless Server with 16GB SDHC Memory Card (WGC10/A)

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Price: $99.99 $92.81   

Product Feature

• Wireless storage for your smartphone or tablet
• Removable memory serves as storage
• Comes supplied with a 16GB SDHC memory card
• Copy content from mobile devices to Portable Wireless Server for easy back up
• Copy content from your digital imaging device to Portable Wireless Server for easy access with your Smartphone for uploading to social networking sites
• Compatible with both Android and iOS based smartphones and tablets
• Free PWS manger App available from Google Play or App Store used to manage and control the Portable Wireless Server
• Provides battery backup for your smartphone or camera

Product Description

Portable Wireless Server is your answer for sharing photos and videos while on the go. Connect your smartphone to the Portable Wireless Server via Wi-Fi and backup data, free up space or share content. You can also use the Portable Wireless Server to provide power to your smartphone. Portable Wireless Server is compatible with both Android and iOS based smartphones and tablets. After purchasing the PWS, simply install the free PWS Manager app from Google Play or the App Store. Once the app is installed on your smartphone or tablet, you are ready to connect to the Portable Wireless Server to transfer or backup content.

Sony Portable Wireless Server with 16GB SDHC Memory Card (WGC10/A) Review

The Sony Portable Wireless Server (PWS) has two key functions:
1. A wireless reader of SD cards or USB flash drives
2. A power bank to recharge a mobile device

**** Jump to the pros and cons at the end for summary ****

As a power bank it is limited (both on capacity and on its output current). The product data sheet mentions 2210mAh battery with 500mA output current. While the capacity seems meaningful and (when fully charged), would suffice to fully charge older iPhones, the output current is too low to charge iPhone 5, iPads, SGS3, SGS4 and most other high-end smartphones and tablets (to be read - it will charge very slowly). So I personally wouldn't buy it for its power bank capabilities, BUT it is a very nice addition to a wireless reader if you need one and have a compatible phone.

As a wireless storage device, it is similar to the Kingston Mobilelite. Both products come with SD card slot, USB 2.0 interface and no embedded memory (you can get the PWS with a 16GB SD card). As such it leaves the consumer the freedom to use existing memory cards/usb drives, with the SD card slot especially useful for inserting the card from your digital camera and sharing photos via your mobile device without the need to carry with you a laptop...One caveat is that if it also had an embedded memory like the SanDisk Media Drive (which is priced about the same for 64GB – 4x the memory size, but comes with no memory card), you could also backup this SD to the drive.

To get going you simply download the app, go to the wireless settings of your mobile device and connect to the WiFi network the PWS is creating when turned on, and that's it. You would be able to browse content loaded to an SD card or a USB flash drive inserted to the reader.
The PWS turns on faster than the MobileLite.

The PWS is measures 2(W) x 4 (H) x � (D) in, but twice as thick. It has a high-end design mixing metal bottom and plastic top and you can tell Sony really put thinking into it. I personally liked its sturdy feeling but it is leaning towards the heavier side of these kind of products. In the box you will find the reader, a USB cable, an SD card and Quick Start Guide. It has multiple LED status indicator and I would really recommend reading the guide to understand what each of them mean.

SD Card:
The 16GB SD card is surprisingly high performance (measuring ~22MBps read speed and ~11MBps write speed when plugged directly to my PC). The PWS supports SD, SDHC and SDXC cards. This means it supports ExFAT, so if you would like to load it with files larger than 4GB (think full length HD movies) or simply use high capacity cards (anything higher than 32GB) this feature would come handy. I was experimenting with it with a 64GB SanDisk Extreme Pro card and could access content on it with ease.

The USB 2.0 receptacle works with USB 2.0 or 3.0 flash drives, so no problems here.

Connectivity, streaming and battery life:
I accessed the PWS with iPhone 5, SGS3, Sony Xperia and iPad mini and could stream multiple videos (at the same time). I viewed photos, streamed videos and listened to music so it can be used as a memory expansion device to memory-challenged devices where you could put a few full length movies and thousands of songs (depending on card or USB you plug in) for a long trip. I got ~3.5 MBps transfer speed from a USB (2.0) to the provided SD card which is not too bad (it took for a full 1.3GB movie just a little less than 6 minutes to transfer).Wireless transfer speeds are obviously slower – got ~9 mbps when transferring a 440MB video I took on my SGS3. This would be the speed of reference when you offload photos or videos from your iPhone (Camera Roll) or Android (Gallery) if you are running out of storage on your mobile device. The manufacturer states up to 10 hours of WiFi operation, but I haven't got the chance to check how long it would stream continuously.

Mobile Apps:
To fully enjoy this reader you'd like to use the native iOS or Android apps.
Unfortunately, it seems Kindle app is not available for this product.

Like with all other devices you’d need to first connect to the wireless network the PWS creates in order to browse content on it. To do that you just go to your mobile device’s settings menu and select that wireless network just like you’d do when joining a wireless network at home/hotel/Starbucks. This hustle could be avoided in the Android app (but not on iOS), but for some reason Sony haven217;t implemented it.

The apps are very clean and friendly, allowing to browse content on the phone/tablet, SD card and USB drive (if plugged into the reader). You can copy or move (deleting the source) files and even full folders from the reader to your mobile device for later access.

In the Settings menu you can check the status of the device battery, password protect your reader.

You can and should protect your PWS wireless network unless you'd like anyone in the wifi range of the device to be able to access your content. Password protection is available from the apps' settings menu and is as easy as it is on your home router. It could be nice to have a way to rename the wireless network the PWS creates and to make the network invisible which helps preventing incidental access to an unprotected wireless network.

The PWS features "internet pass through" - basically allowing you to maintain internet connectivity (receiving emails, browsing the internet) while connected to the drive.

One downside for the PWS is that there is no PC/Web app (most products in this category do have one) so there is no way to access the reader wirelessly from a PC or Mac, or if your mobile device is anything other than iOS or Android.

Another lowlight is that while you can keep the drive on while connected to an AC adapter and access the SD card with no battery life limitations, this is NOT the case if you are trying to access a USB stick that is connected to the PWS.
The PWS does not allow playing iTunes purchased content – something that can be done for example by the Mobilelite, the SanDisk Wireless Flash Drive and other products.

Pros:
1. ExFAT support and its expandable storage interfaces (think of 128GB SD card + additional capacity on a USB if you really need more) makes it a good candidate as a movies-stash on the go.
2. If you already have such a device - being able to using it as a power bank is nice.
3. Streaming very well even high bitrate content.
4. Excellent look and feel.
5. You can keep it plugged into a wall ac adapter to go around battery life limitation.

Cons:
1. At a price of $100 with 16GB SD card, if you consider it as a memory expansion device - you should consider buying other products (the SanDisk Wireless Flash Drive for example is sold for half the price for the same capacity).
2. With no embedded memory – you cannot use it to back up your digital camera SD card when running out of storage there.
3. No iTunes content support.
4. As a power bank - it's really limited.
5. No Kindle Fire app and no WebApp.
6. Charger is not provided AND it seems to charge very slowly even by 1A wall power adapter!
7. Cannot access thumb drive over wireless while the PWS is charging.

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