On the positive side, the transfer process was still faster and the battery discharge was still far more efficient compared to what I had previously seen on the Gnarbox. If you choose to view by photos, they’re presented as thumbnails alone with three in a row, allowing you to scroll through them faster. Another function I really like about the drive is the ability to use the WiFi connection to connect to an iPad and watch movies or videos while travelling. After firing up the application, I let it find my home wireless access point, and went through the process of connecting to it.

It also comes in a rubber case, which gives it a little more security, and while I haven’t seriously dropped it yet, it’s been banged around a fair bit since I bought it and functions perfectly well.

For 1Tb SSD, and the RAV, and the USB Hub, i spend about 370 EUR, and gives me more options than the WD My Passport – think thats about 520 EUR for 1Tb and does not allow me to copy from XQD. What’s nice about the My Passport-series devices, is that you can preview RAW files from many different cameras when using the WD My Cloud app. Once the SD card backup starts, you will be able to monitor the copy process by checking out the progress bar in the WD My Cloud app.

Western Digital uses SanDisk SSD drives within the device, which makes sense, considering that WD owns SanDisk. The My Passport Wireless SDD can be used to charge any USB powered accessory – seen here with the Sony a7R III. For example, if you have a Dropbox account, you can install the Dropbox service and browse through your Dropbox content. I am not sure if it was done due to specific chipset limitations, but come on – who on earth is using USB 2. I'd considered Gnarbox but the company was in trouble earlier in the year and it's not clear where they stand now.

This essentially means that if you use other type of media such as XQD, CFast or SD UHS-II, you will be stuck with unbelievably slow transfer rates! At the end of the day, whether I’m staying in the back of my truck, or a hotel, US or otherwise, a laptop and mobile SSD drives are the most efficient backup solution for me.

At the above IO rates I wouldn’t expect the SSD version of the WD My Passport Wireless Unit to perform much faster over WiFi. Once power is connected, the four LCD indicator lights will blink and provide information on how much charging is left to do. Then you can use your phone or tablet to wirelessly connect to the drive and browse or share your work.It features a powerful 6,700 mAh battery that can be used to either power up the device (with up to 10 hours of continuous use), or to function as a power bank to provide charging to other devices such as smartphones and tablets. And while the rubber bumper helps soften any blows, it’s far from bullet-proof and in no way water-resistant. An HD button on my Android app purports to retrieve a higher resolution version for closer examination, but on my phone made no discernable difference with the previous version. Interestingly, even some medium format cameras such as the Fuji GFX 50S and Hasselblad X1D-50c are supported, which is great! Previously I owned a ColorSpace portable backup drive which did a similar job, albeit much slower due to its spinning HDD.