Seagate GoFlex Satellite - Wireless Media Streamer in your Pocket
The Seagate GoFlex Satellite is a portable wireless hard drive that lets you enjoy your media library while on the move with your mobile devices by wirelessly streaming your music, movies, photos and even documents whenever you require them.
Your Media Library in a Pocket
The problem that plagues most mobile devices, apart from battery life, is storage space. This is especially true for iOS devices such as the iPhone and iPad, which have no options at all to increase their storage capacity. On the other hand, this affects Android devices to a lesser extent because many of them have the ability to increase their storage capacity by means of a microSD card.
Seagate thinks they have the solution and that is to go wireless. Enter the Seagate GoFlex Satellite. Although this product has been in the market for some time, Seagate has recently provided a firmware update that includes new features that makes it even more usable.
In a nutshell, the Seagate GoFlex Satellite is a portable hard drive with Wi-Fi capability. Media that is stored onto the GoFlex Satellite can be streamed to any device so long as it has an internet browser. There’s also an app for iOS and Android devices for more direct functionality without having to to launch an internet browser.
The GoFlex Satellite is slightly larger than their regular portable hard drives which are also similarly designed, but the Satellite is no less portable.
Setup
Wireless media streaming devices can be tricky to setup but the GoFlex Satellite bucks this trend and is very straightforward to setup and get it up and running. First you’ll need to transfer your media onto the device and it works here like any other portable drive. PCs will read and write to the drive out of the box but Macs will need to install a special app as GoFlex Satellite is formatted in NTFS, which Macs, by default, can only read from but not write to.
Since the drive's design is similar to their existing FreeAgent GoFlex portable external drives, the GoFlex Satellite also has detachable ports. The special adapter that comes with the drive supports both USB 2.0 and the faster 3.0 standard. For those who want speedier transfers, optional adapters supporting both FireWire 800 and Thunderbolt are also available for purchase.
Once the transfer is done, you can unplug the GoFlex Satellite and let it run on its own power. Incidentally, the built-in battery pack is good for around five hours. Once the GoFlex Satellite has powered up and its wireless indicator turns green, simply look for its wireless signal on your PC, Mac or mobile device and you're good to go
Previously, connecting to the GoFlex Satellite would mean losing your Internet connection. But the recent firmware upgrade rectified this and the device can now connect to any existing Wi-Fi network and act as a Wi-Fi bridge. This way, any devices connected to the GoFlex Satellite will be able to enjoy access to that particular Wi-Fi network too. Furthermore, the firmware upgrade also increased the number of devices that can be logged onto the GoFlex Satellite at any one time from three to eight.
The power indicator on the left tells you how much juice the GoFlex Satellite has left - it turns red when it's running low on power. The Wi-Fi LED on the right turns blue when it has initiated and is ready to broadcast.
The device comes with detachable ports, just like the FreeAgent GoFlex external hard drives. The cable that comes with it supports both USB 2.0 and 3.0. Optional Thunderbolt and FireWire 800 attachments can be purchased for faster transfers.
The GoFlex Satellite has a DC-in that can be connected to a wall charger for faster charging. In case you're wondering, the device can still be used while it's being charged. The device can also be charged via direct USB connection if you prefer to have it next to your computer.
Our Experience
If you are using a PC or Mac, your content can be accessed using any internet browser. The GoFlex Satellite’s user interface is logical and straightforward so navigating to find your media content should pose no issue even if you are using it for the first time.
If you are using an iOS or Android device, you can access the GoFlex Satellite using the free GoFlex Media app which is available from the iTunes Store or Google Play. The app provides a smoother experience and the interface is similar to what you get if you were to use a browser and it is therefore very easy to use.
Using a web browser to access the GoFlex Satellite, we found that its menu was very easy to use and navigate.
The iOS version of the free GoFlex Media app presented a similar looking menu screen.
The GoFlex Media app is capable of grouping your songs according to Artist, Album, Song Title and even Genre.
For the most part, streaming of media content was fuss-free and seamless. Photos and musics could be viewed and played easily. The GoFlex Satellite’s interface even groups your music according to Artist, Song Title, Album, Genre and can even read custom playlists. The signal broadcasted by the GoFlex Satellite is also pretty strong seeing that music playback was smooth even when we placed the device is an adjacent room with the doors closed; video playback did stutter a little at times.
However, issues arose when trying to play media files. The GoFlex Satellite is a streamer not a decoder, so it can only play video formats that your device supports. That’s not such a big problem if you are using a PC or MAC (just make sure you have the appropriate codecs), but on an iOS device that means a pretty short list. The work around is to encode your videos first in an iOS friendly format, or download a third-party video player app that can handle more formats.
Finally, in our testing, we found that the GoFlex Satellite was good for around five hours of use. This is decent in our books since your tablet will likely only last just about as long if it was constantly streaming content.
Conclusion
All in all, the Seagate GoFlex Satellite is a well thought-out product from the storage giant. Setup was easy and fuss-free and its user interface is easy to figure out and use, even for first timers. Actual streaming performance was good as well. If you keep the GoFlex Satellite in close proximity (such as in your backpack or pocket), music and videos will stream seamlessly and stuttering only occurred when we placed the device in an adjacent room and with the doors closed.
The Seagate GoFlex Satellite is a nifty device and is highly recommended for those who want to carry their media library close at hand.
Considering the added broadcasting and sharing abilities of the GoFlex Satellite, the device is understandably more pricey than your regular 500GB portable hard drive, coming in at S$299. Though it's a bit on the expensive side, products like the GoFlex Satellite are a new group of products which are still a bit niche. However, this is a product that works just as advertised and is of great convenience if you are looking for a way to increase your mobile device’s storage when on the go.
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