Kingston MobileLite Wireless review: Extra storage for your mobile devices, on a budget

Last week we had seen the **Seagate Wireless Plus 2TB** drive for those who like carrying around their digital library. This week, we have Kingston MobileLite Wireless, which uses the same philosophy of wireless data transfer. But unlike the Seagate Wireless Plus, Kingston MobileLite Wireless does not come with a hard drive. It has provisions to add on external storage. Let us see how it performs, but first lets look at its design.   Build and Design   [caption id=“attachment_229581” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Kingston MobileLite Wireless comes with a plastic build that is not too sturdy[/caption] Kingston MobileLite Wireless is not really an impressive looker, but its design is functional. It comes in a rectangular form factor and looks like a covered cellphone. A gray and black coloured design dominates the plastic enclosure and you have three LED indicators on the top left hand edge. There is an SD card slot on one edge and a USB and microUSB ports on the other edge. Just beside the LED indicators, you have the power button. The plastic enclosure isn’t as sturdy as we would have liked, as the top and bottom portions bend easily on mild pressure, but the device itself is quite light despite housing a battery inside.   Features [caption id=“attachment_229582” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Kingston bundles a microSD to SD card adapter along with the MobileLite Wireless[/caption]   This is a device meant for wireless streaming and to that effect, it has a 2.4GHz 802.11n wireless adapter on board. Not only that, it also houses an 1810mAh battery so that it can be used on-the-go as well as charge your mobile devices. This hardware portion is just one half of the equation, as it will require applications to work with. The MobileLite app is available on both the Apple and Google Play stores. The user interface on the two OSes is slightly different. The MobileLite app lets you copy, move as well as share files to social networks. You can copy and move content from the external storage onto your mobile devices but not vice versa. To turn on the wireless adapter, you need to hold onto the power button for at least three seconds. You can also use it as an SD card reader if you have connected the MobileLite to your laptop/desktop.   [caption id=“attachment_229663” align=“aligncenter” width=“350”]  The SD card and USB drive showing up in the MobileLite Wireless app. Content can be segregated based on its type - document, picture, music, video[/caption]   Performance Streaming content off the MobileLite wireless streamer is quite easy. Just connect your mobile device to the MobileLite hotspot and you are good to go. We used the Gionee Elife E7 and the iPhone 5c to test the device. Please ensure that you have the relevant apps to play back the media files as well as view the documents you have on your removable storage drives. By default, you will get error messages if the MobileLite app does not support any format.   [caption id=“attachment_229579” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  It can take in a flash drive at one end and an SD card at the other end. The microUSB port is used to charge the MobileLite Wireless[/caption]   With the VLC media player app on Android we faced no issues playing back most variety of video files. We played back AVI, FLV, MOV, MKV, MP4 files without any issues, except for the 1080p MP4 file playback which would shut down within moments of starting. Seeking video was problematic on AVI files, but worked (although with a lag) on other formats. On the iPhone we faced issues with the AVI and MKV formats. We could play back content on a desktop browser using the Wi-Fi hotspot and going to the IP address of the MobileLite Wireless. Playing the same video file on two devices simultaneously wasn’t an issue.   [caption id=“attachment_229583” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  The LED indicators are placed atop the MobileLite Wireless. A 3-sec push is required to turn on the Wi-fi adapter[/caption]   We could play most music formats including FLAC and MP3, but we faced issues with .WMA files. You can play music in the background and browse through other content on the app as well as browse through photographs, open text or PDF documents to read and so on.   [caption id=“attachment_229660” align=“aligncenter” width=“350”]  You get the option to share content, copy it to your mobile devices as well as mail it[/caption]   Under the settings menu, you get more details about the app and the devices connected. You can also get an idea of the remaining battery life in terms of percentage. Since you have connected to the MobileLite hotspot, you may lose access to the internet. But under the WiFi Network connection of the Settings menu, you can select your local router and still be connected to the MobileLite Wireless. Of course, we did notice a minor drop in the internet speeds, but nothing to worry about.   [caption id=“attachment_229662” align=“aligncenter” width=“350”]  Under the Settings menu, you can see the battery life indicator and also connect to your local router[/caption]   The battery life is quite decent, and can easily last over the course of a day, if you are using it intermittently. Continuous video playback lasted for around 5 hours. Considering the battery capacity is just 1810mAh, and the same battery is used for streaming, use it for charging your device only in case of emergency.   Verdict and Price in India Kingston MobileLite Wireless is an interesting device when you are on the move and want to consume content without depleting your mobile device’s storage limit. The fact that the MobileLite Wireless can also act as a power bank in need of emergency is another plus point. It is great to play back content off a flash drive, SD card, and we could even stream content off a WD My Passport 1TB external hard drive.   If you are commuting for long hours and want to catch a movie while at it without bothering about the storage space on your cellphone, this is a good device. At home, the MobileLite Wireless can act as a cheaper alternative to a NAS drive, allowing upto three users to access the content off a single SD card or USB drive. The SD card slot can be a boon if you want to share your photos with a couple of friends, as up to three devices can access the SD card simultaneously.   At an MRP of Rs 4,000, and a market price of around Rs 3,500, the Kingston MobileLite Wireless makes sense for those who do not have a microSD card slot on their mobile devices to expand the memory as well as for those who would want to like the option to carry more data along with them, but do not have the budget for external wireless hard drives such as the Seagate Wireless Plus.