Over the last couple of months, I have posted a few videos about the RAVPower FileHub. One of them triggered something in the YouTube algorithm, and my channel went from utterly insignificant to only kind of insignificant...but its huge for me. After that I kept up the excitement with videos about other aspects of the device, mostly answering questions folks had. I will take a moment to explain why this thing is special to me and why I thought it necessary to share with you.

I started with the RAVPower FileHub Plus about a year and a half ago. My wife and I went to Tuscany for a week, and I decided I would go without my laptop. But I would take my camera. Now when I take photos, I take a lot of photos. And that means a lot of files get generated. I could rely on the cards to hold my photos until I get home, but that's a bit risky since getting back to those locations might not be able to happen right away. Thus I wanted to make backups as I went.

Ten years ago I had looked at a device called the Hyperdrive for precisely this task, but it was using old tech even then. They still sell it for way more than its worth, but there isn't much choice out there. The Gnarbox is another popular solution, but I don't think I knew about it at the time. When I found the FileHub Plus, it seemed to check all the boxes at a fantastic price. It ranged between 40 and 50 USD on Amazon.

So what features does it offer that makes it so exciting? The older FileHub Plus is a battery that can charge your phone or camera batteries or anything else that can be powered with USB. It also includes an 802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz wifi travel router. It also has an SD Card reader. And with the free app, you can move files around between a USB hard drive, SD Card, and your phone. For about USD 45. Incredible!

I used it in Italy on my trip, and it performed flawlessly. I also used it to power a Raspberry Pi which I ssh'd into from my iPad.

Fast forward a few months and RAVPower released an update: the FileHub. It's odd that the newer and better update dropped the Plus from the name. What this offers is AC750 (which means 2.4GHz with a max bandwidth of 300Mbps and 5GHz with a max bandwidth of 400Mbps) vs. the older max of 54Mbps. It also transfers files between connected drives faster. Overall that seems like a massive upgrade for only 5-10 USD more than the original.

In the video posted in September, I go through some basic file transfer benchmarks. It's not the fastest device, but it's far better than the previous model, and it worked great for my purposes. I also cover some of the other basics of the device.

If you are interested in picking up the device, you can find it at http://geni.us/SjYbJH9

Well, you can when it's in stock. It's been very popular in the last few months and has been out of stock. It looked like it would be back in a few weeks. We will see if that happens.