Five years ago, seasoned mixture the fully-functional WiFi radio into a size of the customary SD label would’ve seemed similar to scholarship fiction — and actually, it kind of still does. Be which as it might, Eye-Fi is right away good into its third era of products, amazingly, as well as we’ve gotten the possibility to check out a company’s newest top-of-the-line indication which just not long ago started shipping, a Pro X2. Like the strange Pro indication prior to it, a Pro X2 is differentiated from the less pricey stablemates in dual vital ways: a single, its await for TENDER uploads, as well as dual, its capability to bond to ad-hoc networks — in alternative difference, you can wirelessly fasten the label straight to your laptop rather than than starting by an access indicate. Where a Pro X2 gets a curtsy, yet, is in what Eye-Fi calls a “X2 Engine,” the three-pack of facilities that includes 802.11n await, Class 6 SD opening, as well as a nifty underline coined Endless Memory. Let’s have the closer look at what’s altered — as well as for stream Pro owners, whether a X2 warrants an ascent.

Using an Eye-Fi card involves installing the menu extra / presentation idol (for Mac or Windows, respectively) upon your appurtenance which gives you entrance to a requisite management program as well as lets you get the glance of newly-uploaded photos as they roll in. Having previously used the Pro, we already had a company’s Eye-Fi Manager program installed upon the appurtenance when you stuck the Pro X2 into the slot (you don’t need to make use of a included USB-to-SD adapter, by a approach — the MacBook Pro’s reader worked only fine). Though a software famous a card and popped open the web-based Eye-Fi portal, you were right away told which you needed to install Eye-Fi Center to goon, a thicker, Adobe Air-based client that requires internal installation. We would’ve elite to continue regulating Manager ourselves, but it’s not that large of the understanding. Interestingly, you incidentally gummed up the functions when we upgraded to (and subsequently killed) Adobe’s Gala preview recover of Flash 10.1; a menu additional would bucket only excellent, though trying to open Center would outcome in… good, nothing. Ultimately, we bound it with the ground-up reinstall.

We found Eye-Fi Center to be the workable app that’s no more difficult than it needs to be — it only gets the pursuit finished, as well as it does so pretty intuitively. If you own multiple Eye-Fi cards, you can conduct them alone from the list during a left of a window. You can tell which label (if any) is now continuous and eject it, though more interestingly, you’ll find the small rigging idol which grants you entrance to a card’s full suite of options; this is where you confirm just how your upload workflow behaves, and it’s very configurable. Most of these options have been around given Eye-Fi’s early days, yet, so let’s concentrate upon what’s new here: Endless Memory mode, privately, a underline which is common by all a X2-class cards in Eye-Fi’s lineup. Off by default, the underline allows you to configure the label to automatically delete aged pictures and videos once they’ve been successfully uploaded, and you can set it to flog in when anywhere between 10 as well as 90 percent of a card has been filled. The luminosity of the underline is flattering extraordinary, and it’d be undiluted to take upon the trip when you don’t have a laptop accessible to offload cinema to as you go — generally total with a card’s support to automatically bond to open and AT&T hotspots. We found that it worked as advertised.

So what about a Pro X2′s alternative brand-new features over a older Pro? We tested a card with the Panasonic GF-1, and you weren’t means to mind any obvious disproportion in write opening using the newer card’s Class 6 await; that’s not to say it wasn’t physically essay faster, though a camera’s aegis seemed to strengthen us from seeing it. Ditto with 802.11n support — connected to 802.11g with a aged label during home, uploads were already function as fast as you could run over to a computer to check them, so you don’t unequivocally need any extrinsic progress in opening which 2.4GHz-only 802.11n competence yield. Your mileage positively might change here, but don’t design miracles.

Though the Eye-Fi Pro array supports (and has upheld for the whilst ad hoc wireless networks, it’s not a feature we’d rest on — it feels similar to the hacky capacity, as well as you were never means to get it to work scrupulously with the MacBook Pro. The most candid approach to configure it is to set up a network upon your appurtenance, plug in the label, as well as name a network to supplement to the card’s list of stored network configurations, though even after following all those stairs (and letting Eye-Fi Center determine the pattern, nothing was uploading for us after shooting the integrate exam photos as well as waiting multiform mins. It’s probable which they would’ve eventually proposed transferring, but if you have to wait, contend, 10 or even five mins for the card to bond, the feature is rendered flattering useless as distant as we’re endangered.

Wrap-upWe’ve regularly desired the concept of what Eye-Fi’s perplexing to do, as well as a Pro X2 undoubtedly represents the most finish and capable execution of which judgment to date. Endless Memory is a fanciful addition to a X2 line that you adore, though ironically, it’s not as necessary now which a label has gained an one more 4GB of storage versus the comparison Pro indication. If you’ve already got the Pro as well as you find which you’ve got the workable way to conduct a 4GB which you have, a X2 probably isn’t value a $150 hole in your bank comment — as well as if you’re brand-new to a universe of Eye-Fi as well as you don’t really need wireless RAW uploads, the Explore X2 competence be a improved choice for $50 less. Either approach, though, an Eye-Fi of a single sort or an additional will make the flattering honeyed further to your camera pack.