RAVPower Filehub review: A travel router that over promises and under delivers

Travel routers vest to a category of devices that definitely caters to a niche audience. It's no doubt useful to have your own personal network jacked into a hotel'south network while on the become, merely it's probably only something worth investing in if you travel a lot. Merely what if you lot took a travel router and injected it with some light NAS features and made it double as a personal backup battery?

That's just what RAVPower's Filehub aims to practice. With a USB port, SD card slot, and a dedicated app to facilitate file transfers between the ii, information technology's more than just a travel router. But it's this aforementioned Swiss Regular army knife approach that makes the Filehub a bit of a mess.

On-the-get network

RAVPower Filehub

$48 at Amazon

Bottom line: The RAVPower Filehub is interesting in theory, but its Swiss Army Knife approach makes information technology more than confusing than useful.

Pros

• Convenient size
• Tons of features
• Decent connection speeds
• Bombardment backup

Cons

• Confusing setup
• Mobile app is a mess
• Connectivity is hit or miss
• File transfer is slow

What you'll like about RAVPower Filehub

There's something to be said well-nigh RAVPower'due south goals with the Filehub. Not but is information technology meant to act equally a personal router that you lot can tack on to whatsoever Ethernet connection, but it aims to be your one-cease shop for bankroll upwards files, too. That can exist done through a couple of unlike methods using both the SD-card slot on the side of the Filehub, forth with the USB port that sits on its rear.

In fact, yous never take to fifty-fifty use the Filehub as a router if you want to do a quick backup. Simply adhere an SD card and a USB storage device at the same time, and yous can utilise a dedicated button on the Filehub's side to perform an instant file transfer from the SD card to your USB device. All of this is made a picayune bit easier if yous are wirelessly connected to the Filehub's 2.4GHz or 5GHz Wi-Fi bands, however, every bit you can besides motion files directly from a mobile device over to storage connected to the Filehub with the Filehub app.

When acting as a router, the Filehub performs well. I never encountered whatever problem actually connecting and staying connected to either the 5GHz or 2.4GHz bands. You will experience a more limited range than your standard router, but information technology'southward unlikely y'all'll have to devious too far away from the Filehub given its purpose anyhow.

Internet speeds were relatively solid throughout my testing besides. RAVPower claims you can hit speeds of up to 433 Mbps on the 5GHz band and upwardly to 300 Mbps on the 2.4GHz band. I didn't approach those speeds in my own testing with my 200 Mbps abode internet connection, simply I was still able to maintain a perfectly reasonable 95 Mbps — more enough for spider web browsing and streaming.

Battery life was also fairly stiff and lasted a full workday. It comes packed with a half dozen,700 mAh battery, which is what powers it when using it as a router or performing file transfers. What's dainty almost that internal battery is that it can double every bit a power bank, allowing yous to connect a phone or tablet to the USB port to charge up your devices.

All of this is packed into a relatively small package that makes the Filehub easy to transport. The device measures effectually four inches long and well-nigh three inches wide, so it'due south like shooting fish in a barrel to toss in a bag and striking the road.

What y'all'll dislike well-nigh the RAVPower Filehub

As much as I was attracted to the Filehub for its features, really using it is a messy feel. A big reason for that is the disruptive procedure of figuring out the combination of push button presses y'all accept to suffer to use the Filehub properly. While yous'll eventually get these downwardly if you employ the Filehub long enough, I found myself consulting the transmission far more I'd like.

When yous plough the Filehub on, the Wi-Fi bands are off by default, which is likely a battery-saving measure in case you just want to use it as a ability bank or quickly motility files with the ane-push button transfer feature. To turn on the Wi-Fi bands, yous have to concur down a dedicated side push button for 3 seconds. But where you lot'd think this would turn on both bands, that initial process merely turns on the two.4GHz band. You take to perform the same three-2nd button printing to turn on the 5GHz band, which and so switches the router to only circulate that band. In lodge to get both bands working, y'all're required to get through the process one more than fourth dimension.

It'south understandable that RAVPower would gear up things up this way to save power; you're working off a limited battery capacity. However, it's needlessly complex and time consuming to get upwardly and running with both bands. A more elegant approach might be to make band switching available with a quick press of the button because information technology's doubtful you're going to suffer from many adventitious push button presses in situations where yous'd exist using a travel router.

The Filehub also failed in one key surface area: internet connectivity. That'south not to say I couldn't get connected, but I couldn't become it to work as a standalone router connected straight to my modem. I was only able to go the internet upward and running by connecting the Filehub in access-betoken and bridge modes in combination with my usual home router. This could be some configuration effect on my end, simply straight connecting the Filehub to a modem is the simplest setup for a router, and it'southward disappointing to encounter this fail.

Finally, there'south the mobile app. While it certainly looks prissy, actually using information technology was an practise in frustration. I like that the home screen tells you exactly how much infinite is taken upwards and what's gratis on storage that you lot have connected to the File hub, but actually viewing and transferring files is laborious. Loading file previews takes a fair amount of fourth dimension, and the interface isn't articulate when a file transfer has finished.

Y'all can also connect to the storage attached to Filehub via a browser on your PC to view and move files. However, the process is somewhat irksome and the interface is about as barebones equally you tin become.

Then should you buy the RAVPower Filehub?

RAVPower had a unique thought with the Filehub, and I can see it being somewhat useful for a niche audience. However, it lacks quite a chip of polish and there are several issues with the process of getting connected and transferring files. Information technology feels similar it's trying to be also many things at in one case.

If you can come across yourself needing a NAS-lite on the road for transferring or accessing files from several devices to storage fastened to a cardinal location, yes, the Filehub may be worth checking out or at least considering. Similarly, the i-button transfer for moving files from the SD card to USB storage is a nice touch. However, going a more direct device-to-device road with a dongle for your phone or laptop would be a better, and possibly cheaper, option. And then if these features don't seem like something you genuinely demand, I'd probably laissez passer on a buy.

Personal router

RAVPower Filehub

On-the-go networking

The RAVPower Filehub could certainly be useful equally a power bank and a quick mode to connect all of your devices to hotel internet on the go, simply its glut of features ultimately makes information technology more than disruptive than useful.

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/ravpower-filehub-review

Posted by: arneybadeltudy.blogspot.com

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