Asus Travelair AC

Review: Asus Travelair AC

Conclusion

...a compact package that ticks most of the right boxes, though there is room for improvement.

The Travelair AC isn't short on meaningful usage scenarios and works well as a simple remedy to everyday computing headaches.

Looking to share the photos you've taken on an SD card? Want to retrieve content from your iPhone without the hassle of iTunes? Or do you simply want to store numerous episodes of Peppa Pig for the kids to watch via a tablet on a long-haul flight?

Travelair AC is up to the task and the integrated 3,000mAh battery ought to last a while between charges. We've been streaming music continuously from our review sample for the past five hours, and battery life is still at 48 per cent. Factor-in an affordable £60 fee and it's a compact package that ticks most of the right boxes, though there is room for improvement.

The use of an outdated USB 2.0 interface prevents the device from doubling as a worthwhile external storage drive, and if it's more space you're after, the 32GB capacity isn't particularly roomy by today's standards. SD-card expansion helps mitigate that concern to some extent, however it's the limited out-the-box capacity that ultimately prevents Travelair AC from being a prime candidate in this burgeoning field.

The Good		The Bad
Compact size Easy to use AiDrive app Connects to up to five devices Integrated SD card slot		USB 3.0 would have been nice Not a huge amount of capacity

HEXUS.where2buy

The Asus Travelair AC is available to purchase from Amazon UK.

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At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.

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Why on earth did they style it to look like an old iMac accessory?

bridges009
Why on earth did they style it to look like an old iMac accessory?

This comment is the only reason I read the article.. maybe they'll bring out the whole Jolly Rancher spectrum. Then get sued.

“Asus scores well on the flexibility front. Travelair AC allows for up to five simultaneous connections”
Now if this only has slow transfer speeds for a single user, how slow will it be with 5 simultaneous users all trying to stream movies?
Can't understand why manufacturers are not moving to USB 3 (or even USB 3.1 type C / Thunderbolt 3) ports - faster transfer speeds and quicker charging, it isn't like it has not been around for a while now.
Also a good idea would have been to be able to use it as a charger for the phone or whatever.
I still prefer to have a few large micro SD cards handy (64GB and 128GB - slowest transfer speed is 48MB/s up to 95MB/s - a little faster than the Asus). Plus I have found that my third party phone case will allow me to keep a couple extra cards inside it, so I always have plenty of space. Found this very handy when I was in hospital for extended stretches, I had someone else put prerecorded free-to-air TV shows and movies from my HTPC and PVR (I can even remotely set the PVR to record up to 4 channels whilst I was incarcerated in the hospital) onto the cards, that way I had something to keep myself entertained, without exceeding any phone data plan.