Other by stefan @ 2020-02-29
The FlashAir W-04 comes with upgraded performance levels versus the previous iterations and besides the handy WiFi features it comes with an updated software interface and support for Eyefi Connected. We can connect both users and guests to the card (up to seven devices at one time); the guests will have access to a different SSID, where we can give access to photos only from a certain timeframe.
At first, we would like to thank KIOXIA for offering a sample of their FlashAir W-04 Wireless SD Card for testing and reviewing.
“KIOXIA in Düsseldorf, Germany, markets flash memory products and solid-state drives aiming at consumers and retailers in Europe. For over 50 years, KIOXIA has been developing and manufacturing storage solutions used by most major IT and consumer electronics brands.
We at KIOXIA believe that personal data is a valuable commodity that is worth to be stored and processed in the fastest, most reliable and safest way possible. We believe that personal development, the growing of knowledge and experience as well as the creation and conservation of impressions and perceptions are an intangible good supporting individual progression and cultural achievement. Our memory solutions offer convenient handling for everyday situations with the aim to provide excellence in its tasks.”
WI-FI RIGHT ON THE CARD
The FlashAir™ SD card series has been designed for video and photo enthusiasts who want the very latest in technology. The series not only saves your data - it comes equipped with a Wi-Fi antenna built right into the card itself. This function allows you to view and transfer videos and images between devices without removing the card. It also offers an integrated ‘Eyefi Connected’ feature that prevents a camera automatically powering off when wirelessly connecting with the FlashAir™.
UP TO SEVEN DEVICES AT ONE TIME
The FlashAir™ SD card acts as an access point allowing up to seven devices such as tablets, smartphones, and laptops to access the data stored within the card simultaneously.
Nessie exclusive by FlashAir
Find the real reason why no photo of Nessie has been published so far! Toshiba’s FlashAir SD card includes a built-in wireless LAN chip plus an antenna that makes it accessible to any WLAN-capable PC, smartphone or tablet. FlashAir, the simple way to shoot and share.
USER FRIENDLY APP
Use the free FlashAir™ iOS or Android app to view the content on the SD card, or to quickly stream and share between devices. Navigating the interface is easy. Start the FlashAir™ app on your smartphone before taking photos with your digital camera, and all new photos recorded on the card or a selected format will be automatically downloaded to your smartphone. The FlashAir™ app eliminates the need to select the photos you want to download to your smartphone. The latest update of the FlashAir ™ app V4.4.0 released March 28th, 2019 provides the following enhancements:
-Improved display of RAW format files
-Improved photo edit functions
-View photo’s Exif information
STAY ONLINE
What’s more, Internet Pass-Thru Mode allows you to access the web while still connected to the FlashAir™ SD card. So it’s easy to share your latest shots with friends.
SIMPLE SET-UP
The FlashAir™ SD card follows the SD Memory card standard and is easy to set-up. Simply insert it into your digital camera or camcorder and you’re ready to shoot and share.
QUALITY YOU CAN TRUST
KIOXIA is the inventor of flash memory and has a well-earned worldwide reputation for producing high quality technology.
The latest generation of FlashAir cards from KIOXIA is speedy by offering read/write speeds of up to 90MB/s, making it ideal for 4K and Full HD video recording. The benefit of using these cards is that they offer WiFi connectivity so you can view and transfer data from it without removal from the camera. The card is also allowing up to seven users/devices to be connected to it at once, since it is acting as an access point, we have Internet Pass-Thru mode for getting Internet access while being connected to the card and also Eyefi Connected feature is supported, that prevents a camera to power off automatically when the wireless feature is used.
Our sample card was shipped inside a small cardboard enclosure, with lots of details on it; we get to see its latest code name (W-04), the fact that we are dealing with a SDXC UHS-I card, with Speed Class 3 rating, X-ray proof, estimated speeds for reads/writes but also a small plastic window that shows how the card really looks like:
Some more details are offered on the back as well, such as total formatted capacity, a SDHC and SDXC compatibility notice, but also the product serial number:
The product is protected inside a transparent plastic mold and a manual is offered as well:
Besides the packaging, we will also get a free plastic enclosure for the card:
The FlashAir W-04 does resemble the look of the previous generation, with a large sticker on top, highlighting the wireless capabilities, the speed class and ratings but also the total card storage capacity:
A lock button is also present for disabling accidental write/deletion of files:
On its back, we will be able to spot the usual gold-plated contact fingers, the product serial numbers and the internal code name, but also the MAC address for the wireless interface:
The included manual does come with the necessary operating instructions, in multiple languages:
For taking advantage of the wireless function on mobile devices, we can always install the FlashAir application:
An intro will be displayed upon the first launch of the app:
Make sure you are not connected to another wireless hotspot before continuing, otherwise the card SSID will not be detected! After it has been detected, we will be asked for the default password:
It will take some seconds for the connection to finalize successfully:
On the next screen, we will be able to change the default wireless password:
After the password change, the card will need a power cycle:
As working with another online services, photos and videos from the device can be saved on the FlashAir W-04 as well, via WiFi:
The application does also come with a side menu, for browsing through different multimedia content types:
We can browse through the photos located on the card with ease; from here we can also make use of PhotoShare that allows guests to only see the photos from a specified date:
The photo gallery will be opened automatically after clicking on any photo:
The photo gallery comes with extra settings as well:
The Exif view tool is quite handy as well:
The PhotoShare SSID will be separate from the FlashAir SSID and we can configure a separate password for it as well:
Other types of files can be accessed as well:
The Settings area does allow several options to be configured:
Here we can always modify the current SSID and password for FlashAir, enable Internet pass-thru mode, work with additional WiFi settings, enable/disable Eyefi Connected settings and more:
Internet pass-thru mode will ask for the nearby SSID password:
We have tested the Internet pass-thru mode speeds, so we had the FlashAir as a middle-man; while our Internet subscription is rated at 300Mbps, the download speeds via the card were around 15Mbps:
The testbench was composed from the following hardware:
CPU: Intel i7 9700K Retail
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Ultra Gaming
RAM: Patriot Memory Viper RGB Series DDR4 16GB (2 x 8GB) 3200MHz
Video: XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT 8GB GDDR6 RAW II Ultra
Power Supply: Cooler Master 850W
SSD: OCZ Vector 150
Case: Cooler Master HAF 922
The FlashAir W-04 64GB SDXC card comes formatted exFAT; we have used a Lexar UHS-II USB 3.0 card reader in order to perform the speed tests:
To determine the flash drive read speeds, the HD Tune v5 utility was used:
To measure the real life performance, we have used the Total Commander application to copy to the card and from the card the same file and recorded the transfer speeds, when they have stabilized.
File Copy
File Read
The FlashAir W-04 comes with upgraded performance levels versus the previous iterations and besides the handy WiFi features it comes with an updated software interface and support for Eyefi Connected. We can connect both users and guests to the card (up to seven devices at one time); the guests will have access to a different SSID, where we can give access to photos only from a certain timeframe.
While the smartphone/tablet application comes with a lot of configuration options, we can access the card resources from the computer browser as well, after connecting to the appropriate wireless network:
Internet pass-through does allow web access to the SSID of the card as well, but the speeds are quite limiting if in the area you do have a higher-specced broadband subscription.
The product is available with different capacities: 16GB, 32GB and 64GB; since this card is capable of recording 4K video that takes a lot of space, we would always go with the 64GB one, which can be found online for about 59 Euros.
At first, we would like to thank KIOXIA for offering a sample of their FlashAir W-04 Wireless SD Card for testing and reviewing.