Kingston Mobile lite wireless g3

By alex wallis, 28 March, 2016

Review Category

Rating

1 Star

Review

This is a review of the Kingston mobile lite wireless g3, this is a wireless card reader which can be used to backup and restore information from both ios and android devices, though Obviously I only have experience of use with ios.
So, to describe the device its about the size of a box of matches, very pocketable, it has only one button on it for turning it on and off, on the unit itself there is a slot for a card, it can take both standard and micro sd cards with an adapter included in the box. There is also a USB port for plugging in memory sticks, an Ethernet socket if you want to connect the device to the internet. Finally there is a micro usb socket for charging the device though this isn't immediately obvious and sighted help ended up locating that for me.
There is no way to tell when the device is turned on or off, it takes around 40 seconds to turn on, the only way I have found to determine if its on or off is to check to see if its broadcasting its own wifi signal if it is then obviously its on and if not its turned off.
The way this device works is it creates a wifi network which you must connect to in order for the companion app to communicate with the unit from your Ios device. It does support a method of connecting to an existing wifi network but I was unable to get this to work the app crashed for me when I tried, connecting to its own wifi network does mean you lose internet access while connected to the devices own wifi.
You have to have an app installed on the IOS device to configure settings for the device and to actually handle backups and restores. I found that the app is basically usable though it has lots of very badly labeled buttons some of which don't respond to taps with VoiceOver, and after having made a backup the restore option doesn't appear to be accessible with VoiceOver.
I was able to get a backup to an sd card done using the app of my camera roll, however this solution appears incapable of backing up your albums so the actual names are preserved, you can select where to save pictures and select if you want to back all your pictures up or just certain albums.
However you have to specify a location to save the pictures including a folder. I found that when I did the backup all my pictures were copied to the card but it was just as all photos the album names weren't preserved it was literally just all photos in one folder all jumbled together. So what I am saying is even if you select to back your camera roll up it doesn't appear to copy the data as it is entirely from your camera roll. As I said above the restore option doesn't appear accessible with VoiceOver, and when trying to restore with sighted help we have been unable to find any restored pictures either in an album or just under all photos.
File management on the sd card and selecting items for backup is also not very easy with VoiceOver as VoiceOver gives no indication that items are selected or if tapped to unselect that this has happened.
The app does indicate when the device is fully charged as the name has the word full in the battery status icon, but if its not full then really you have no idea what the charge level is from the app.

Talking to Kingston customer service in the UK isn't a pleasant experience even though you call a UK number there customer service is clearly based in a call center an they don't seem to know anything they always put you on hold to go and ask someone even for basic questions.
I am going to be contacting Kingston about poor app accessibility but so far I wouldn't recommend this solution at all if you have no sight. This mobile lite wireless g3 comes in two versions a this version I have been reviewing and a pro version, the pro version has 64gb of internal storage, and a larger battery though it is around double the price of the non pro unit. the Kingston mlwg3 can also be used as a portable battery charger for a phone or tablet that needs charging if needed. there is a user manual online but good luck trying to navigate Kingstons very complicated website, I found googling for it was the easiest way to find it rather than trying to hunt on Kingstons website. I wouldn't give this 1 star if I had the choice. I have put the link to the support page in the url field this has commonly asked questions on it, a link to the user manual and a data sheet. It will save people from googling trying to find this information.

Devices Accessory Was Used With

iPhone
iPhone

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