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

Features
By Manuel Masiero, Achim Roos
published

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?

File Access And Streaming

The DashDrive Air AE400 uses the Samba/WebDAV streaming protocol. This enables Windows-, Linux-, and OS X-based devices to access it via their network settings and browser. Adata also offers a free DashDrive Air Elite app for iOS 5.0+ and Android. The app can be downloaded from the Apple App Store or Google Play, respectively.

The DashDrive Air Elite app opens a Wi-Fi connection to the hardware device itself, enabling access to files on the SD card reader or a connected USB storage device, as well as the DashDrive’s system settings. We’ll talk about the former first, and cover the latter on the next page.

Streaming Over Wi-Fi

The DashDrive Air AE400 has to be in data transmission mode to send or receive files. This is the first of the three modes, and it's enabled by default when you power the storage reader/power bank on. After that, select the wireless network called “ADATA_AE400_XXX” in the connecting device's network settings. The “XXX” at the end is a placeholder for a combination of letters and numbers. This combination is unique for every DashDrive Air AE400. Lastly, enter the network key, which is “12345678” from the factory.

Once the connection is made, files from the DashDrive Air AE400 can be browsed using, for example, the DashDrive Air Elite app or Windows' File Explorer. Adata categorizes files into Photos, Videos, Music, Documents, and Others.

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The DashDrive Air AE400 can play music and open images through integrated software tools. The same files can also be downloaded to a PC or mobile device. Information can go the other way as well. Using the DashDrive Air Elite app, simply push the upload button and choose the files to send. Data transmission is quick, and we didn’t encounter any problems when we tried it out. Naturally, larger files take a bit of time to transfer in spite of a fast wireless connection. Expect to wait two or three seconds for a 4 MB photo to pop up in the picture viewer.

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Wired File Access Via USB 2.0

We were positively surprised by the Adata DashDrive Air AE400’s wired transfer rates. It offers first-rate performance when it’s used as a card reader via its Micro-USB port. We employed Patriot's EP Pro SD card to try it out. The DashDrive Air AE400 read at 45 MB/s and wrote at 38 MB/s. As you no doubt know, those are really good numbers for a USB 2.0 connection.

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