Obsessed with video games, American culture and Buffy. Can usually be found at his laptop working.
- Game Review: Crash Bandicoot 4 – It’s About Time - 12 October, 2020
- Opinion: Hogwarts Legacy – to buy or not to buy? - 28 September, 2020
- Mobile Game: Crash Bandicoot On The Run - 11 July, 2020
If you are anything like me, and you work from your phone and your laptop, flipping files between the two, and burning holes in your cloud storage devices, then you probably need to figure out a really quick and easy way of transferring files between your devices.
While most cloud storage devices – e.g. Google Drive, DropBox or iCloud – all have their benefits and drawbacks, one big issue is space, with Google Drive topping the list with a whole 15GB of storage capacity.
In a world where most phones come with double that, and laptops come with 1TB, as standard, you need a better way of transferring large amounts of files.
There are also those who cannot quite get to grips with cloud storage but who just about get the basics of USB memory sticks. There are even those who wish their new Nexus, Galaxy or iPhone could have an external memory that didn’t take up much space for when they just wanted to play music.
For all of those people, and the rest, I present the Leef Bridge 3.0 for your delectation.
Here is the crux of it: for $29.99 (just shy of £20 or €28) you can get a 16GB external storage device that slides from being USB 3.0 to MicroUSB, meaning it is compatible with both devices. This means that you can download a file from your phone onto the Leef Bridge 3.0, slide the connector across, and plug it into your laptop. IT IS JUST THAT SIMPLE.
Personally, my issue is that I like to download music using Amazon because it is simpler, easier to keep track of, and means that the tracks are not just saved on my laptop or phone, but on their cloud server connected to my account so I can just redownload the tracks if/when I need to. Simples.
However, downloading this music directly to a fully upgraded Lollipop 5.1 Nexus 6 can be a pain, as many apps have not been upgraded that far (even six months after the transition from Jelly Bean to Lollipop). Especially since the Nexus 6 is just out and therefore many apps are running differently/slower.
Therefore, it is easier for me personally to transfer files physically, especially since I have not really changed adaptor since I had a Blackberry Torch, meaning that the MicroUSB is not something likely to go any time soon.
The plus sides of a device like the Leef Bridge 3.0 are capacity, size for cost (it is smaller, lengthways, than a 2p coin, and has 16GB for that), and ease of use.
The negative, however, is again a personal one – I have a relatively new phone and as a result it makes things more difficult with regards to technology that uses previous installations, so I had to specifically use the app ‘ES File Explorer File Manager’ to get the Leef Bridge 3.0 to work on my Nexus 6. Once sorted, I learnt how to use the app (again, very simple) – and, on reflection, it was a piece of cake.
There are always teething issues with this kind of thing, and it is up to Leef as a company to keep making sure they have the latest information for whenever a new phone or device comes out to ensure that their device is working on the latest and greatest. As it came out seven months ago, it is unsurprising there are issues with more recent models of phone.
Love. This. Hard. Would give it 15 out of 10 if I could get away with it, because it is the one piece of technology I have been waiting for since my first smartphone (a ‘Crapberry’, as my friends referred to it at the time).
You can find out more information about the Leef Bridge 3.0 on their website now.
