Apotop Wi-Reader - Personal Cloud (DW09)

The good:Battery life is great. I can go about 8 hours as stated. I've left it in my backpack for a weeks and the battery has held up well. (Important, since you can't replace the battery.)Streaming is outstanding. I've streamed plenty of shows and movies with no lag. The movies start playing within a few seconds.Media Options. I had an SD Card laying around that was 32GB. I had no use for it until I bought this device. Now it's my main source for movies, shows, etc. With the device allowing you to use an SD Card, I have yet to use a USB stick, other than to test it out.Connection. While the device is usually close to my iOS device, the signal is full with no drop-offs.Size/Weight. It doesn't weigh anything and when paired with a SD Card, it's only ounces. It's about 3"x3" and is extremely portable.The Not-So-Good:Media types. While testing USB sticks, I found a 64GB USB stick didn't work. I don't know if it is because the stick is 64GB, or because the stick is a USB 3.0. My 32GB 2.0 USB stick works fine. Not a huge problem for me, since I have the SD Card, but I want to let you know that some types might not work. (- 1/3 Star)Connection. Not really a huge problem, but it does take up to a minute for the device to connect after initial turn on, but once it connects, I never lose a signal as stated above. (- 1/3 Star)Software. The iOS software does not work for all video types. I don't know about the Android Software. I was able to work around this by purchasing AVHD Pro from the iTunes store, then using that app (which works for all types of videos), I can connect using FTP Server to the address of the Wi-reader and movies play great. I actually uninstalled the Apotop software as I don't use it at all. (-1/3 Star)Price. While $80 was a lot to spend, my time and effort are worth it to me. I'm not going to take any stars here, just because I don't know of any ultra-portable device that can do all that this can do, so $80 is worth it to me because of the savings of my time and effort.The Unknown:Battery Life. I don't know how long the battery will continue to last as long as it does. For now it's great, so it gets a full star, however, if the performance begins to fall off, I'll come back and take up to a star from the review. As I stated, the battery is not replaceable, at least not without breaking into the device.If I had a time machine, would I still purchase the unit? Yes!If I still used an Android Tablet, would I purchase? No!My personal reasons for purchasing:I started with Android Tablets and had no need for a wireless transfer device, however, I got tired of the Android lag, so I replaced my Google Nexus with an iPad. My main problem I found was that with iOS, you do not get to just move items over. You have to put them into iTunes, then sync up using iTunes to get the videos/music/photos onto the device. My problem was that I use iCloud to back up my iPads and do not sync up on any computer with iTunes. Also, I watch a lot of shows and wanted the quick ability to transfer back and forth. I have a SD Card and a USB SD Card converter that allows me to quickly transfer onto the media. This works for what I want to do with it. I did not need this with Android, because I could just plug in the Android device, transfer the files onto the Android device and then go away. However, with the iOS device, it's not that simple.

This is a brilliant device. I shoot lots of pictures in the field during disasters for the Red Cross. I need to share those pictures with fellow volunteers. They all have different types of tech. This allows me to share photos among the team easily. Big plus it's small and light.

Seems to work as advertised. The software is kind of basic and not great, but I got it to work. Need to play with it more and become more comfortable with it's use. Does what I needed, move photos from a SD card to my iPad.

After reading the reviews, I purchased this item. I could not get it to work, despite what I read on the reviews. I was going to return the item and received the information, but had to leave for a two week pilgrimage to Europe, then went to S.C. shortly after my return. I asked my granddaughter to see if she could get it to work, but she couldn't. Meanwhile, the time for returning the item was past and now I am stuck with an unusable item. Subsequently, I discovered that I could just download the pictures from my iPad (the reason I purchased this) with my recharger cord and it worked!!! I did not have to purchase any additional equipment. I had to give this a one star because it just didn't work for me.

Bought the supposed updated DW23 in Singapore . Was working well till its microUSB charging port broke after less than 3 months of use. Tried to RMA the device and had a lot of trouble. Basically they don't honor their warranty. Avoid at all costs. Will try to IOGEAR equivalent at less than half the price.