The Seagate Central and Wireless Plus are external hard drives that aim to let you access and save your content in the most efficient way, from anywhere
If there’s one pressing need for most gadget users today it’s organising content. From PowerPoint presentations on your laptop, to movies on your tablet, to pictures from your last holiday clicked on your smartphone, each one of us is reeling under a content explosion. Most of us keep putting off the onerous task of organising content to the ‘next weekend’ that seldom arrives. Some of us manage to use cloud solutions like Dropbox while others just keep moving data to external storage drives without a concerted plan. We look at two Seagate devices that arrived in India much after their global debut – the Seagate Central, that could become your storage hub for multiple devices, and Wireless Plus, a portable storage option that can augment the storage capabilities of your mobile devices and tablets.
Seagate Central
Central, as the name suggests, aims to be at the centre of your devices. It’s one of the first comprehensive home NAS (Network-attached storage) drives and comes with a generous 4TB of storage. We like the polished build of this drive- it won’t stick out in your living room, even though it’s about twice the size of your usual external hard drive and weighs a touch under a kilogram. The fine metal mesh that encases the top of the device is a thoughtful touch to keep the internal drive cool. There are no physical buttons, just an LED indicator, while the rear panel has a power socket and two connectivity options. There’s a USB (2.0) port (in case you need to add an external storage device) and an Ethernet port to sync with your Wireless Router. Seagate Central has only file sharing and DLNA capabilities – par for the course as far as home needs go. Installation is a breeze – just plug the device into your wireless router and you are almost good to go.
The Seagate app is easy to configure across platforms and devices, making it easy to update and back up files from your Windows PC, Android or Apple devices. The Central’s limitation as a single-volume server is that it does not offer a back up should its only internal hard drive fails. This means it’s not a bad idea to keep a back up of those critical office or personal documents on another source. The Central also offers you to the convenience of accessing your documents from a remote location via the browser, though the speeds are not lightning fast. You might be better off using a cloud service on the go.
The Seagate Central is a great device to organise large volumes of digital content. There’s also a Seagate App for Samsung devices (Via Smart hub on Samsung Smart TVs and Blu-ray players) that allows you to access your media library from your TV. 4TB of storage might do the trick (at least in 2015) for heavy users, while the ease of setting up and managing your data is a definite plus. If there’s one flaw it’s the lack of a back up drive.
Seagate Wireless Plus
If the Central is for users looking to share content across devices under a single roof, the Wireless Plus has a simpler yet very relevant functionality. It aims to be your ‘go to’ repository for media files that can’t squeeze into your tablet or smartphone, and be readily available, should you need to access them wirelessly on a never-ending commute or during a holiday. At a little over 250g the Wireless Plus is imminently portable and manages to cram an internal drive, a battery and Wi-Fi access into its compact footprint.
It’s very easy to set up, thanks to the native Seagate App; the Wireless Plus works as a conventional portable drive with 1TB of storage and can support up to 8 devices with its Wi-Fi hotspot capabilities. If there’s one minor flaw, the device supports only single band Wi-Fi (802.11n) but it more than makes up with support across all operating systems and device types. Video playback is smooth and the device’s biggest calling card is its 10 hours+ battery life. At Rs 12,100 the Seagate Wireless Plus doesn’t come cheap for its 1TB storage, but its stellar battery life and portability make it a compelling proposition at a time when most premium devices are choosing form over function and foregoing the external memory option.
AT A GLANCE
Seagate Central
- What we liked: support for multiple platforms and devices, ease of setting up, generous storage
- What we didn’t like: lack of a back up drive, slow speeds while accessing files using the browser (remote access)
- Price: Rs 16,100
Seagate Wireless Plus
- What we liked: battery life, portability (light weight)
- What we didn’t like: Single Wi-Fi band, Some media formats not supported on the Seagate app
- Price: Rs 12,100
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