G-Technology G-Connect (500GB)

product 0.3

• Pros

  Built-in router. Compact.

• Cons

  Must be connected to Internet via Ethernet for full functionality. No Wi-Fi passthrough. No battery. App limited to iOS at this time. Only USB 2.0. May require network swapping on your mobile device. Gigabit Ethernet won't work with Wi-Fi on.

• Bottom Line

  The G-Connect hard drive is a puzzle. It does a decent job of storing your data, and makes it convenient for your iOS device to access media content from it wirelessly. But there are a staggering amount of hoops you need to jump through just to set it up and configure it for use.

The G-Technology G-Connect (500GB) ($199.99 list) hard drive bills itself as wireless storage for your iPad or iPhone. However, since it lacks a battery, doesn't work with a portable hotspot, and requires a wired Ethernet connection to serve Web pages to connected devices, it doesn't really fulfill its potential. It will wirelessly serve media to your iOS and other mobile devices after much technical wrangling and configuring, but it's not incredibly easy to use. If you're the type of person who enjoys elaborate puzzles and challenges to make things work, then by all means try out the G-Connect, but for most users, there are other alternatives.

Design and Features
The G-Connect is a white portable hard drive with a large circular chromed "G" icon embedded in the top panel. It's pocketable, measuring about 1 by 5.25 by 3 inches (HWD). There's a row of white LEDs on the front panel for Wi-Fi, status, and power/hard drive activity. On the right side, there are an Ethernet port, port for the AC adapter, USB 2.0 mini, power button, and Wi-Fi button. The drive comes with a y-shaped USB cable, a USB AC-adapter cable, and a 2.5A USB power adapter. You can use the included USB power adapter to charge your iPad, but since there's no battery in the G-Connect, the power adapter will be plugged in all the time.

At first blush, this drive seems to compete with the Seagate GoFlex Satellite Mobile Wireless Storage(500 GB) ($199.99 list, 3.5 stars), but while the GoFlex Satellite is meant to move with your portable devices, the G-Connect is meant to be a stationary drive with some wireless router features built in. You're meant to connect the G-Connect up to your wired router, so that way you can serve your data wirelessly to devices in your home like iPads and iPhones. The G-Connect lacks the battery that the GoFlex Satellite has, but you could of course carry it with you from place to place in order to share media with your friends away from your home. Just don't expect to use it in the middle of a field or where there are no power outlets. The wireless router inside the G-Connect can support about five users, so those five users can surf the Web (provided you have the Ethernet hooked up) and access the media on the drive. If you don't have the G-Connect hooked up to an active Ethernet port, you can still share media wirelessly, but you can't surf the net. If you're using a portable hotspot like a MiFi for your Internet, you'll have to switch back and forth between the two networks. Ditto if you're in a coffeeshop with its own hotspot network. The G-Connect doesn't support Wi-Fi pass through like the updated GoFlex Satellite does now. The Ethernet port does double duty. In addition to passing through Internet traffic, it can serve media to DLNA and iTunes-compatible clients on your home network, as long as the files are in the public folders of the drive. You can also access the G-Connect's shared media on your laptop via a built-in web server, but the iOS app is a lot more polished. G-Technology by Hitachi has promised an Android app in the future, but you'll have to use the web page for your Droid phone or tablet now. If you spend some time with it, you will probably get to a point where most if not all of your media files are available on your network(s). This brings us to the inherent problem with the G-Connect. It's confusing. There are so many conditions that need to be realized so that the G-Connect can work "perfectly". You need a wired Internet connection. You need to be serving less than seven clients on the G-Connect's wireless network. You need to load all your media then wait for the drive to catalog it all and create thumbnails. You need to make sure the files are in the correct public folder(s), otherwise only the admin account holder can access them. You need to copy your files to the drive manually, there's no automated media-gleaning program as on the Seagate GoFlex Satellite. You need a power plug handy. The drive works with Apple's Time Machine backup, but you'll have to reformat the drive to HFS+ first. You need to know the difference between connecting to your home wireless network and the one served by the G-Connect. You have to manage the G-Connect's security. You need the iOS app on your iPod Touch/iPhone/iPad to use the G-Connect to its fullest potential (Android app is coming soon). You're stuck at copying at slow USB 2.0 speeds or slower network speeds, since there's no USB 3.0 connection. The G-Connect has a Gigabit Ethernet port, but it only works at 10/100 speeds if the Wi-Fi radio is on. You can't use the G-Connect with a portable hotspot (like a MiFi), because the built-in router needs a wired connection for the Internet. Basically, even if you consider yourself to be a technically savvy person, you're still looking at several hours just setting the drive up and copying stuff over. In conclusion, the G-Connect feels like it was put together by a committee of people with different ideas: You really have to put yourself in the mindset of several designers and engineers to get things working. While it also requires some configuration, the Seagate GoFlex Satellite is more powerful, easier to load and setup, and ultimately a better way to share your media among a group of mobile device users. If you need even more power or need to support more users, then a full-blown media serving NAS is what you want. The G-Connect is a challenge to setup and use, and it really should be easy.

COMPARISON TABLE
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