SanDisk Connect Wireless Stick Review – The WiFi Pendrive

Well, Introduction to USB Pendrive was the most amazing Invention out there which completely erased out the Era of CD/DVDs. Never thought it could be such level. The Pendrive are the most sold accessory, and almost every person has one for the personal use. It’s smaller and handy, rather than just increasing the storage what could be next? Some thought it could be USB OTG pen drive which connects to Smartphones. Giving an external storage accessibility that’s what we have seen with Transcend USB OTG pen drive which we reviewed earlier. All my conception was changed when SanDisk send me out this SanDisk connect pen drive.

What one Issue with the USB OTG pen drive always had is the problem of the compatibility. As all the Android phones have Micro USB port in common. They were not compatible with an iOS device or current generation USB Type-C connector devices.  The technology may change in future and port would become absurd over time. This was not the case over with the SanDisk Connect.

Build of the SanDisk Connect

When I hold it for the first, it was bit dark for a pen drive, and of course, that was normal When you add WiFi module, Battery with storage it will add weight to the thing. Even after adding two extra things it is small and portable, can even get lost in the jeans pocket. I loved the hexagons design at the front with the Pen Drive cap has a Wifi Symbol and bottom has a SanDisk Logo which would fade out over the use and remains the emboss. The Right side had a power button which turned on Wifi, Reset the Wifi. The power button was so small and wasn’t tactile. The reason being when you kept it in bag or pocket you might not turn on or off the WiFi accidentally. The packing only had the pen drive itself no cables or anything. What I Even Notice the cap of the SanDisk Connect it was Air Tight one and not loose cap which made it felt even premium for the price you are paying. Also, there is a white indicator light which is hidden in the hexagonal front. When you hit the power button, it lights up.

SanDisk Connect App

Yes To transmit or the receive the data you will require the App for sure in Android and iOS. I will say the App the control centre and update centre for the pen drive. When you power up the pen drive initially, it starts to search if you haven’t joined the pen drive WiFi it might have trouble connecting especially in iOS. Yes for a start it creates its hotspot. Once you plug the drive, your files are seen. When you click on the menu icon, you have showcased to the stats of drive battery, drive storage and phone storage. You have options like Internet Connection, Gallery Backup, My Download, Help and settings. I will talk about the each option in a second.

After reading the initial setup of the device, it is clear that the device creates its hotspot. So that could create a bottleneck for you as for the internet you might need to switch the wifi connection. So for this purpose, there is the first option called “Internet Connection”. Which let you pair your drive to existing WiFi connection, and you could browse the internet and access the drive both at the same time.

The second option is the “Gallery Backup” which you get a glimpse of it from the name. The SanDisk Connect acts as a personal small cloud/NAS backup for your photos and videos. This is much essential if you click lots of pictures and cannot keep track of which photo was backed up or not. Also a much important feature for iOS users as well.

The Third option was of My Downloads; This is especially for the transfer happening in between the drive and your device. You could keep track of the failed and successful transfer over here.

Rest options are the Help and Settings section which could help you for main stuff. The help section is much descriptive with Gifs. The settings section is mainly for the passwords and name of wifi and other stuff.

Performance of the SanDisk Connect Drive

The Drive performance is the core thing to worry. I Run the CrystalDisk Mark 5 benchmark to confirm about the USB port, and I came to know from the results that It is USB 2.0. I wasn’t expecting this from SanDisk. It won’t affect in smaller files, but when you always push or pull in huge files, you will feel the slower transfer speed. This is the benchmark. I am a primary user of the SanDisk Ultra and SanDisk Ultra Dual which copies things almost three times faster and costs almost Low compared to this. I want SanDisk to put in USB 3.0 in the SanDisk Connect to make the drive best.

So I mentioned the option for the My Downloads the SanDisk Connect app. So suppose you have a huge video file, It takes a lot of time to download from the drive. Most time I ended watching the SanDisk Connect app itself. The App has it’s an own document reader, Video player who makes things much easier and you would never have to download files. If you wish to download one, it takes a lot of time.

Who should by SanDisk Connect Wireless Stick?

I will say Mainly for the iOS users who ended up buying an iPhone with 16GB internal storage and looking for the USB OTG. iOS users have less option, and I think this option is perfect for you guys. It’s at the costlier part, but the best part is you don’t need to upgrade your iPhone over a longer period. Also, this is the one who uses Android and iOS devices both and want a different backup device for both its device. If you travel a lot this small backup device comes in Handy.

Verdict

The SanDisk Connect™ Wireless Stick is available in 16GB to 200GB capacities with MRPs of Rs. 2590/-, Rs. 3490/-, Rs. 4890/-, Rs. 8490/- and Rs.10990/- respectively. It sometimes cost cheaper in the sale over the E-Commerce site. You must have seen the results and build I think for iOS users it is indeed a must buy an accessory.