Hands On: Seagate GoFlex Satellite review

Both the disk and the WiFi hotspot are powered by a rechargeable lithium battery, which can provide enough juice for five hours of streaming video, or 25 hours of standby time. To conserve battery life, both on the disk and your tablet or phone, the GoFlex Media app has the option to download files rather than stream them. Downloading a full movie from the disk to an iPad takes around seven minutes. We’ll be conducting more detailed battery tests when we get a review sample closer to the release date.

As well as getting a hands-on with the Satellite, we were also told about Seagate’s future plans for the device. With firmware updates, the second (currently disabled) internal wireless antenna could be used to extend an existing WiFi connection, adding internet access to any connected devices. No timeline was announced for these updates, but a Seagate representative was hopeful they would be coming soon.

We were impressed with our early look at the Satellite. Its main appeal will surely be the huge capacity; initially available as a 500GB model. That’s considerably larger than the flash memory in any iPad or smartphone and should be large enough for a sizable multimedia collection. The wireless functionality makes perfect sense, although we predict battery life could become an issue. With an expected price of around £200, you’ll also have to be a serious tablet multimedia addict to buy one.

The GoFlex Media app is now available from the iTunes store, but iPad owners looking to extend their storage capacity will have to wait to buy the disk itself; Seagate won’t be releasing it in Europe until August. We’ll have a full review closer to its release.