Seagate Wireless Mobile Storage 500GB review

All in all, the Seagate Wireless Mobile Storage looks like a decent enough device – but I am unhappy with it. The reason is simple – Seagate's own Wireless Plus device is a vastly superior product as far as I am concerned. As such the WMS suffers from what I would call 'bad product placement syndrome'.

We liked

Seagate tried to innovate by offering the Wireless Mobile Storage drive in five colours. The device also distinguishes itself from the rest of the competition when it comes to the design, and the fact that it has an actual power button.

We disliked

It is relatively bulky for a storage device, and something more portable would have been preferred. Seagate oddly chose to fit in a USB 2.0 port rather than a USB 3.0 model, something that makes it a chore to transfer large amounts of data; it would probably take days to transfer half a terabyte of data.

Final verdict

Amazon sells Seagate's 500GB Wireless Plus drive for £78, and the Wireless Mobile Storage costs £94 from the same vendor – 20% more, in other words. The Wireless Plus Drive has a more classic (I'd say subdued) design, fits comfortably in a jeans pocket, allows up to eight devices to connect at the same time, has a battery life of up to 10 hours and comes with a USB 3.0 port.

Bear in mind that 500GB can get filled up really quickly, so it might be worth investing a bit more to future-proof your device. The 2TB Wireless Plus model we tested last year offers four times the capacity for a 67% premium.

Given all this, there's very little to recommend anyone to buy this device especially as both of these Seagate offerings use the same application/software platform. Don't get me wrong, the Wireless Mobile Storage is not fundamentally a bad device, but you don't have to look far to discover another more compelling alternative.