Hi, thanks for the suggestion, but I specifically asked for impression
of the OTG ("On the go") USB enclosures... :-) *OTG means it can
"suck" files from any mass storage compatible USB camera or card
reader.
My friend got issued the XS Drive (original, not II) from his agency
and after we used it, we both agreed that it's total crap - I hope it
won't disappoint you ;-) The main problem with it was speed (abysmal)
and "autonomy". From the tests here
http://fhoude34.free.fr/PortableHD.htm
you can transfer only 3-4GB at best on single charge - which is
marginal for us, and our experience was similar, sometime even worse.
Also, the XS I had only USB 1.1 (I know the II has USB 2.0 though).
Compactdrive seems nice, and even though some people had written on
DPREVIEW that its lack of voltage regulator can create problems with
HDDs and Microdrives, so far the experience here on list was good, if
I remember.
The reason I am asking just about the OTG enclosures is that
they seem the cheapest reasonable solution - much better autonomy than
these XS Drives and similar ones (one test mentioned around 10GB on
single charge), while speed is getting closer to the Compactdrive -
around 2.5-3MB/s reading from USB2 card reader. At the price (~40
USD), I can buy one just for now, and then later get a better unit
than the Compactdrive later, when the next generation of these PSDs is
available. And I could reuse the HDD in the next unit. From the tests
and reviews I saw, I am not interested in devices like the XS Drive -
all are too slow, and don't have enough battery life. And after
getting a better PSD later, I could still use the enclosure as
portable USB 2.0 HDD.
Thanks for comments anyway ;-)
Frantisek
