ADATA DashDrive Air AE400 Review

1. Introduction2. ADATA DashDrive Air AE4003. Using with PC4. Using with iOS & Android5. Phone charging6. Closing Thoughts7. View All Pages

There is no doubt that the ADATA DashDrive AIR AE400 is an immensely useful product which will prove invaluable to a portion of the audience reading the review.

It would be ideal for presentations, in a room with multiple people – sharing video clips or pictures stored on an SD card or USB drive. Obviously as there is no built in storage when you buy it, the company assumes you are partnering the AE400 with some kind of compatible storage device.

The build quality of the AE400 is excellent, and it looks much more expensive than it is. Only upon close inspection is it apparent that the main body is plastic for instance.

In our review today we paired up the AE400 with multiple Windows PC systems, a third generation iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. In all cases we had a good experience, with the signal holding strong and the interface working well.

My biggest concern with the unit is the drop in speed when using it as a Wifi passthrough device. On our network the speed dropped from 144Mbps to 72Mbps. This had a distinct and clearly negative impact on transferring large data files, both noticeable when benchmarking and in the ‘real world'. I really would not want to be wirelessly copying large files from storage connected directly to the AE400.

As a charging station the AE400 is particularly useful. It charged our Nokia Lumia 920 from flat to 90% charge almost as quick as it would from a mains plug. When we removed the Lumia 920 from the USB header there was still 45% charge left on the AE400 meaning we could get another charge before it died. In reality, without access to a plug, our Lumia 920 battery life would increase from 2 days to 6 days before we needed to ‘return to base'. This is impressive in itself.

You can buy the ADATA DashDrive Air AE400 directly from Overclockers UK for £59.95.

Pros:

• Competitive pricing.
• looks very snazzy
• excellent charger for mobile phones
• useful for streaming to tablets and computers.

Cons:

• Wifi bridge speed dropped from 144Mbps to 72 Mbps in our tests.

Kitguru says: A very handy device which will prove useful to a wide audience. Would make an ideal birthday gift for a tech minded family member.

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