So it’s been a while since our good friends over at Kingston have sent over a new toy for us to play with. Sure, the HyperX side of the business has sent over a few headsets, but it’s Kingston themselves that has all the cool bat-gadgets. So this time the good people over at Kingston sent over a weird little gadget: The Kingston MobileLite Wireless G3. What does this little white box do? Let’s take a look together.
Name: MobileLite Wireless G3
Manufacturer: Kingston
Price: AUD$79.99
Release Date: Out Now
So What Does it Do?
The Kingston MobileLite G3 can do a lot of things. First and foremost, it is a cloud storage drive. Using either the on board memory or adding a USB thumb drive or SD Card to extend the storage space, you can back up files from your Smartphone or Tablet device. The next thing it can do is stream video or music from itself to your TV or whatever device you have linked to the MobileLite G3. It also streams media from USB and SD Cards too using the best video player in the world: VLC player. Finally, the MobileLite can charge your Smartphone or Tablet a couple of times by using it as a Powerbank. So in the end, this all in one cloud storage and charging device is the perfect little companion for short to medium length trips that require you to work while traveling or just want to stream some movies to the kid’s phones to shut them up during a car trip.
How Does It Work?
The MobileLite G3 works simply from a glance. Once you have installed and configured the MobileLite app to your phone or tablet device, you open it up and ise the file explorer to add, remove or use the files. The MobileLite G3 doesn’t have much on board storage from the get go, so getting an SD Card at minimum is a must, unless you want to go to the MobileLite Pro which has 64Gb on on board memory. There is also a simpler Backup/Restore feature that can back up things like your camera roll, contacts and Calendar at the touch of a button. This would be good for those of us who swap phones every 2 or so years once the contract runs up. You can also bridge the MobileLite G3 to your home Wifi connection, but that is a lot more work than it should be.
Why Should I Buy One?
If you’re wanting to extend the amount of memory your phone uses for photos or videos, then you might want to look into buying the MobileLite G3 (or if you have the extra money, get the Pro). Also if you’re looking to get a bit extra charge for those portable devices without digging you that annoying charger unit, then this is something to look into and think of the storage as an added bonus. However, if you’re looking for something to back up those important files from a client or want to wirelessly send something from home to the office overseas, then I wouldn’t pick this up. The MobileLite G3 is for the bare bones consumer at most. Just a nice way to back up photos and videos of memories you took while drunk in Fiji or something.
What’s In The Box?
x1 MobileLite G3 unit
x1 USB (Type A to Type C) cable
x1 SD Card Reader adaptor
x1 Quick Start Guide
MobileLite Wireless G3 review unit provided by GAP Marketing on behalf of Kingston Australasia. You can find additional information about our review policy here.
Summary
The MobileLite Wireless G3 is a nice little unit. It travels well in most bags and is very useful as a mobile device charger. Now while they do recommend sticking to the approved iProducts or Android Products, I was able to charge my Sony Walkman with no issues at all. As a storage device though, the MobileLite Wireless G3 is ok once I dropped another $30 on a decent sized SD Card to add memory to the unit. The limitation of using an app to connect to the unit is ok for those devices that can use it, but it is a complete and utter pain in the ass to get working with your PC if you want that extra back up and manageability.
Pros
- Simple to use App on Smart-devices is cool
- Having both a 2.4GHz & 5GHz connection option is helpful, but suffers during mass data loads
- I can charge my devices off it! No need to drop $100 on a Powerbank anymore!
Cons
- Difficult to set up a network bridge, and even once set up it’s no guarantee it’ll work anyway
- Has a tendency to drop from 5GHz to 2.4GHz and back again at random if you have both enabled on your device
- The G3 having no real decent storage internally sucks!
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Nifty little storage device for the cloud storage beginner
