In today's world of unibody design, some smartphones and tablets are missing out on expandable storage options. But SanDisk thinks it has the answer.
SanDisk is well known for its SD and microSD cards, but the firm is looking to do something a bit different with its new device - the Connect Wireless Flash Drive.
The Wireless Flash Drive connects to your handset via Wi-Fi and allows you to wirelessly steam media to your smartphone with the help of an app. You can also save data from your device to the drive.
USB, but not as you know it
As well as that, it works as a conventional USB stick, so you can plug it into your computer to transfer files on and off the drive - although it's technically a microSD card slotted into the stick.
A key feature of the Wireless Flash Drive is the ability to stream three separate HD videos at the same time to different devices, which would be great for families trying to keep kids quiet on a long trip. In total, eight devices can be connected to the drive at any one time.
The four hours of streaming provided by the battery isn't quite so stellar, but if you're just using it to save photos taken on your phone, we've been assured it'll last much longer.
Is the price right?
We were a little disappointed to find out that it doesn't support larger microSD cards (we'd have liked to stick our 64GB card into it), but you can use other manufacturer's 16GB and 32GB offerings as well as the bundled SanDisk one.
If you fancy picking up a Connect Wireless Flash Drive you'll need to fork out £41.90 for the 16GB version, or £49.90 for the 32GB, which feels a little on the steep side to us.
Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry 10 users are out of luck though - the application required for use is only Android and iOS compatible for now.
