Dubai
Most of us would have lost their data on the smartphones and tablets at some point due to loss of the device, water damage and breaking the phone.
Many are not serious about the smartphone data and don’t do backup unlike ours computers.
There are ways to back up the device like storing it in the cloud, storing it on the PC, or using USB drive but the cloud offers you around 5GB od free storage and after that you need pay yearly charges for extra space.
There are also security issues with the cloud service due to its vulnerability.
However, in reality, only a few backup their data on smartphones.
According to a study, only 20 per cent of people backup their smartphone data regularly. And 80 per cent of the people want simple and easy way to backup.
Toshiba has created a first-of-its-kind device called ‘Canvio for Smartphone’ which not charges your Android device but also backups the data.
Just connect your phone to charge and the backup will be performed automatically after activating the simple Android application — Content Manager.
Not only that. The multi-user stand-alone device also allows users to manage data via their phones using the app and it provides easy route to transfer data from an old phone with just a few taps.
It can be shared by several devices, enabling multiple users to benefit from data backup and data sharing.
And if you lose your phone or upgrade to a new model, you just transfer the data to the new device and you’re good to go.
It can also be used as a conventional external hard drive, backing up data via USB Type-A and USB Type-C interfaces.
The 500GB storage capacity device is supplied with an AC adapter, a USB 2.0 micro-B cable, a USB 2.0 Type-C cable and a USB micro-B — Type-A adapter.
The 2.5-inch circular device looks similar to the wireless charging pods available in the market but it is bigger and weighs 210 grams.
Canvio for Smartphone requires a power supply, does not have its own battery and does not support wireless charging.
After downloading the app and connecting the device to your smartphone, the companion mobile application information from the internal memory will be automatically copied to the drive of the device each time you connect the device. The app can also be used for data management.
To enable automatic backup and charging, the Android smartphone has to be turned on with sufficient battery level and the designated app has to be installed. The device works with Android 5.0 version and above.
For the first time, the phone has to have 100 per cent battery life if you have a much bigger data to copy. I had issues during my testing as I had around 200GB of data on my phone, including the microSD card. Each time, the battery life goes below 50 per cent, it stops backup and starts charging the device. It took me almost half a day to copy the entire data — photos, contacts, videos, music and documents to the device.
The app will show the clear picture of the storage capacity on the phone and on the microSD. It does not copy the apps.
In the settings, turn on the auto backup and users can select the target options such as photos, contacts, videos, music and documents to be backed up in future. After that, every time you back up the device, only the incremental changes will be backed up.
The device is portable and can be taken to the bedroom in the night. I used to charge the device near my bedside table at night. By morning, the smartphone battery is full and backup is also done.
I tried restoring the data from the device to another smartphone and it was easy to do. Since it uses USB 2.0 technology and not USB 3.0, the transfer of data is a bit slow.
One main disadvantage which I found is that it does not have a password protection. For example, as it is a multi-user device, I can see what my wife and kids have backed up on the circular device. Toshiba need to think about that and have password options for each smartphone.
It’s a simple, portable, and affordable solution for your data storage needs. It comes in white colour and priced at Dh269. Availability by mid-February and supports two-year warranty.
