Adata DashDrive Air AE400 Review: Wi-Fi, Charger, And Card Reader

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Adata's DashDrive Air AE400 offers a lot of functionality in a small package. It’s a USB port, an SD memory card reader, a Wi-Fi hotspot for up to 10 devices, and a 5000 mAh power bank able to charge your smartphone and tablet. How well does it work?

Adata's All-In-One DashDrive Air AE400

Typically, you'd need several different pieces of gear in order to get USB connectivity, an SD card reader, a wireless networking hotspot, and a power bank for charging devices. But Adata's DashDrive Air AE400 combines all of those things in form factor measuring 8 x 5.9 x 2.1 cm and weighing 128 g.

The company claims that its DashDrive Air AE400 is a jack of all trades that comes in handy in a wide variety of situations. In addition to looking good in black with a nice honeycomb surface design, it enables wireless access to USB drives and SD cards, lets up to 10 devices share one Internet connection in bridge mode, and can even be used to charge your cell phone or tablet when you're away from a power outlet. Adata says the DashDrive Air AE400 power bank’s battery boasts 5000 mAh of capacity, which should be enough to charge most smartphones a couple of times.

The Adata DashDrive Air AE400 regularly sells for about $80, though we're currently seeing it at $55 on Newegg. That's no more expensive than buying all of that functionality separately. So, we'll have to see how well it all works together from a practical standpoint.

Adata DashDrive Air AE400 Technical Specifications

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ManufacturerAdata
ModelDashDrive Air AE400
InterfacesMicro-B USB, USB 2.0 Host, SD Card Reader (SD, SDHC, SDXC)
Wi-Fi StandardIEEE 802.11 b/g/n
Integrated Battery / Electrical ChargeLithium-Polymer / 5000 mAh
Dimensions80 x 21  x 59 mm (W x H x D)
Weight128 g
Warranty12 Months
Manuel Masiero
9 Comments Comment from the forums
  • hp79
    This was $20 after rebate from newegg couple days ago, and I was going to buy it but decided not to because it doesn't work like a travel router. The only reason that there's a built-in internet share function is so that you can access the files and have internet access at the same time. This will work if the AP you are trying to connect is a secured wireless AP. But places like starbucks / hotels / airports where you have to enter a password in the webpage or click "I agree to the terms..." are impossible to do with this device so that makes it much less useful. If it only had a Ethernet jack so you can actually use it at hotels as a mobil wifi router would have made this very useful.
    Reply
  • rdc85
    what about the heat generated? i know heat is bad for component and the battery..

    is there any heat issue with this device?
    Reply
  • seanclark
    How good is this compare with RAVPower ® FileHub $49.99@Newegg
    Reply
  • Pyree
    Can you transfer files between the SD card and the HDD connected to the USB port? This feature will be very handy for doing a backup on photos and videos stored in the camera's SD card when I am traveling. I don't need to carry a laptop.
    Reply
  • razor512
    Why not add some built in storage (eg a 1TB laptop drive)

    I tried to make a similar portable setup using a 20,000 mAh battery pack (pretty cheap on ebay)

    then having it power a raspberry pi and an external drive, and a SD card reader, I wanted automate the backup of SD cards using a button attached to one of the GPIO

    it works but it is very slow

    I wanted too do a setup where a user can go on a photo shoot, and when 1 card is full, they can pop it into the reader then press a button and it will copy everything from the SD card into a new folder, then erase the SD card

    only thing is a USB to USB copy on a raspberry pi can be well under 1MB/s in some cases. (when I really want around 10-15MB/s copy speeds which will allow for a backup and erase before the user is done filling the next card.
    Reply
  • RedJaron
    11135854 said:
    Can you transfer files between the SD card and the HDD connected to the USB port? This feature will be very handy for doing a backup on photos and videos stored in the camera's SD card when I am traveling. I don't need to carry a laptop.
    Similar question here, how robust is that USB port? Can I hook up a USB hub to it? What about a more diverse card reader ( something that can do CF, Memory Stick, and SD all at once? ) And will each of those "drives" be visible? My dSLR uses CF, so if I could use this to dump a CF card onto a mobile HDD, that'd be excellent while traveling.
    Reply
  • The_Trutherizer
    Proprietary? A google device? Tsk-tsk. I'm really disappointed. I expected better.
    Reply
  • Adrinne_J
    11135738 said:
    How good is this compare with RAVPower ® FileHub $49.99@Newegg

    I personally have bought a RAVPower Filehub from Amazon. It works like a charm. I am happy with it.
    Reply
  • Mikel A
    First off I don't consider this as a portable travel router as good as tplink wr702n, then I suspect the heat will be as much as hurting you when read/white speed is fast, also the 5000mAh would not be sufficient to fully charge up an iPad, could probably only charge half its power.
    Reply